Collections

Born near Winchester, Virginia in 1920, Virginia Artrip Snyder moved to Boca Raton, Florida when she entered the inaugural class at Florida Atlantic University in 1964. She received a degree in government and politics in 1965 and went on to become an investigative reporter for the Ft. Lauderdale News and later the Boca Raton News. During her career in journalism she was accorded seven national, state, and local awards for investigative reporting. Mrs. Snyder gained prominence and credibility following her multi-part series that exposed the inhumane conditions at the South Florida State Mental Hospital. As a community activist, Mrs. Snyder spearheaded the establishment of the South County Neighborhood Center in Boca Raton which, in time, grew into the Florence Fuller Day Care Center and the Mae Volen Senior Center. Subsequent to her career as a reporter, Mrs. Snyder embarked on a new endeavor as private investigator. In 1975 she was named one of fourteen "Outstanding Women of Florida" by Governor Ruben Askew and one of "Florida's Finest" in 1996 by Governor Lawton Chiles. This collection is a compilation of Mrs. Snyder's work as a poet, news reporter, private investigator, and community activist.

The Visual Representation of Women Collection is a postcard collection that focuses on representational images of women from around the globe. Covering the gamut of postcard types, images portray the many social constructions of womanhood and their attendant meanings. Containing a variety of mass produced postcards to unique artist renditions, the collection is an ongoing project of FAU University Libraries' Special Collections that will build over time.

Personal papers and items of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Vreeland, Sr. donated by Harold Vreeland. The collection showcases the Vreelands' interest in fishing, boating, nautical scenery, and community engagement over three generations of fishermen in Fort Lauderdale. It comprises numerous photographs of fish taken off the coast of Fort Lauderdale in the Gulf Stream; postcards of Fort Lauderdale and other landmarks in Florida; nautical and fishing stories written by James B. Vreeland Jr.; nautical charts; correspondence; scrapbooks; news clippings; logbooks from the House of Refuge; artifacts and nautical instruments; and audiovisual materials recorded by James B. Vreeland Jr. and his son, Harold Vreeland. The collection also documents local history and highlights Cordelia Vreeland's involvement in the Woman's Club as both historian and president. The collection contains 19 boxes (including seven albums consisting of photographs and scrapbooks), four Hollinger boxes, three oversized boxes (nautical charts, news clippings, and flags), and five boxes with different sizes containing artifacts and objects.

The Walker Papers, dating 1745 to 1938, cover the careers of both George Keith Walker and Major George Wythe Walker. Among those pertaining directly to Major George Wythe Walker is a certificate showing that he was appointed by Governor Francis P. Fleming to be Major of the Eighth Regiment of the enrolled Militia of the State of Florida, and thirteen certificates of appointment as State Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida and signed by the ten governors of Florida under whom he served.

Materials consist of correspondence, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and photographs. The collection relates primarily to Fuller's activities as a real estate developer during and after the Florida land boom. Subjects covered include farming, fish, Florida natural history, Florida population and economy, geology, hurricanes, the New Deal, and real estate in Cuba, Levy County, Melbourne, Ocala and Sarasota County.

The Walter R. Clark collection contains correspondence, photographs, a scrapbook, and a framed collection of badges related to the professional and personal life of Walter Reed Clark, the Sheriff of Broward County from 1933 to 1950.