Collections

The Arlyn Austin Katims Civil War Collection focuses upon the Civil War from the Union position. Within the collection are illustrations, currency, and a number of artifacts from the era. Items of special interest include an authentic mourning card from Abraham Lincoln's funeral and newspapers reporting Lincoln's death.

In 2000, the family of Nathan Birnbaum donated his music manuscript dating from 1902-1918. Locations noted in the manuscript include: London, Neu Sandez and also Knockaloe and Douglas which were both internment camps during World War I (1914-1918). Titles are mainly in German. A few titles are in Hebrew. Music almost exclusively for Violin.  Includes marches, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, and Jewish religious songs. There are over 130 titles, many of which are signed by one or more of the following names: Nathan Birnbaum, Z. Gohlberger, Safir Julius, and John Angeren. All compositions are handwritten; the majority appear to be original although there are some transcriptions of works by Drdla, Blumenthal, and Brahms.

The collection of Cantor Shabtai Ackerman consists of manuscript music, print music, personal songbooks, personal papers, programs, and pictures relating to his professional life as a cantor. Music books have been cataloged and relocated to Rare Books. Audio recordings have been relocated to Judaica Sound Archives. Cantor Ackerman was a world-renowned cantor with a powerful dramatic tenor voice. He was wounded by the Nazis in World War II and chanted services in the great Moscow Synagogue as a refugee in 1945. After the War, he was appointed permanent Cantor of the Baron De Rothschild and Ahavas Achim (Fraterna) Synagogue in Bucharest. He also served as Chief Cantor for the Great Synagogue of Tel-Aviv, Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel Moses in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He received an honorary doctoral degree in music from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where scholarships in his name have since been established. Cantor Ackerman received two Kavod awards from the Cantors Assembly of America. He passed away on July 27, 2007.

The collection of Cantor Irving Obstbaum consists of manuscript music, print music, personal songbooks, personal papers, programs, and pictures relating to his professional life as a cantor. Music books have been cataloged and relocated to Rare Books. Audio recordings have been relocated to Judaica Sound Archives.  Cantor Irving Obstbaum served the congregation of Temple Beth-El in New York for over 40 years.  Along with his responsibilities to his congregation, he served as Executive Director of the Jewish Ministers Cantors' Association that helped find and place other qualified cantors to other Temples. He was also well known for giving lectures and sermons on various Jewish and Hebrew musical topics throughout New York.

The collection of Cantor Morton Pliskin consists of manuscript music, print music, personal songbooks, personal papers, programs, and pictures relating to his professional life as a cantor. Music books have been cataloged and relocated to Rare Books. Audio recordings have been relocated to Judaica Sound Archives. Cantor Pliskin was known as a "wunderkind" cantor who started singing next to his father who was a cantor at the age of 13. After his family moved to Chicago he studied at the Hebrew Theological College of Jewish Studies in Chicago, the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and the University of Northern Illinois (where he focused on cantorial history). After graduating and serving as a cantor in Minneapolis for a few years he returned to Chicago where he served at the congregations of Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation and A.G. Beth Israel. Cantor Pliskin also had well established relationships with Cantor Moses Silverman and Dr. Bauer. He passed away on January 9, 2008.

In 2012, Cantor Murray Yavneh donated his collection of nearly 200 pieces of print music, music manuscripts, song books, and periodicals to Florida Atlantic University. The collection dates from 1863 to 1976 and includes: cantorial music Hebrew and Yiddish songs, American popular standards, and instrumental works.

In 1991, the family of Zvi Aroni [neé Shalom Zvee Aronowitz] donated his collection of print music, music manuscripts, personal songbooks, pictures, programs, and video recordings relating to his professional life as a cantor. Music books have been cataloged and relocated to Rare Books. Audio recordings have been relocated to Judaica Sound Archives. Cantor Aroni studied voice with Cantor Samuel Kavetsky and had a close relationship with the composer, Reuven Kosakoff. Many of their manuscripts can be found in the Collection. Cantor Aroni came to America in 1947 where he served as cantor in synagogues in Philadelphia and New York City. From 1964-1968 he served as Cantor of the Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue in Toronto, Canada. It was here that he was able to realize his dream of reviving the boy choir and integrating it into the service. From 1968-1979 Cantor Aroni lived and sang in NYC. He was Cantor at Beth Torah in North Miami Beach until his death in 1990.

This collection of World's Fair memorabilia was donated to Florida Atlantic University by Charna Larkin. The Larkin family established an endowment in 2004 tosupport the study of the American presidency at FAU. The endowment also supports the annual Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency, which hosts public lectures by best-selling authors and distinguished scholars. In addition to collecting original signed letters from every U.S. president from George Washington to George W. Bush, Alan B. Larkin also collected memorabilia from World's Fairs.

The majority of correspondence dates from 1841 to 1916.  Other miscellaneous documents date through 1970. These letters and postcards represent leisure and business correspondence to and from the Clarkes and reflect concerns, beliefs and opinions of ordinary men and women of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The photos within this collection date from the 1840s and include various methods of processing illustrative of the evolution of photographic procedures.  The majority of the photos are in carte de visite format.  Also included in the collection are cabinet mounted photos and Kodak box camera snapshots.  Additionally, photos taken in the 1970s depict the Clarke's ancestral home, Patmore Manor in Bishop Stortford, England. The transcription of an oral history interview conducted in 1998 with Alice B. Wilkes is also included.

This collection comprises supporting research material and manuscripts by the late horticulturalist Dr. David Sturrock. The collection contains a manuscript, research, maps and photos for his book, Trees for Southern Florida.  Also in the collection are first and second drafts of an unpublished manuscript entitled The Bahamas from the Viewpoint of a Horticulturalist, along with related research notes and correspondence.