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The collection of Dana A. Dorsey is comprised of the legal and financial records of his vast real estate holdings. Mortgages, leases, rental and loans agreements represent the focus of the collection. Of special interest to researchers are those documents which detail the growth of both black and white Miami, deeds which describe in detail the properties and location of what were the newly created sub-divisions in the city. In a period of racial segregation these documents show a blurring of racial lines as exemplified by Dana Dorsey business relations with the founding families of the city.

The Dance Band Combos Collection consists of instrumental arrangements of popular songs first made for distribution to theater and music hall orchestras. These early to mid 20th century arrangements proved so popular that surprised publishers began making them available for general sale. Pit bands could then purchase a ready-made score of a current hit tune to vary their repertoire. Dance groups found them useful as well, and they made novel additions to the programs of salon ensembles and amateur combinations. Later, these multi-purpose orchestrations became commonly known as stock arrangements.

The Daniel M. Johnson Collection consists of approximately 5,200 books published between the 1780s to 2002 that are by and about Africans and people of African descent. The collection includes many first edition and signed copies as well as pamphlets, articles, letters and photographs. The major categories that Daniel M. Johnson delineated for his collection are: African-American literature and children's literature; African and Caribbean literature; African-American history and critical thought; African, Egyptian, and Middle-Eastern history; and African-American art, music, dance, and sports. The catalog includes 4164 nonfiction books and 907 fiction books.

This collection contains primarily copies of articles that were researched in the writing of The Rise, Fall, and Future of Florida's Citrus Industry. This includes information spanning over one hundred years of this citrus industry's history, with its focus on origin, failure, and success. It also includes manuscript and edited copies of sections of the book itself, as well as annotations and outlines of research.

The David Kirby Rare Book Collection contains literature, poetry, chapbooks, and literary magazines from the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. The collection includes first edition, inscribed, and autographed volumes. Authors and poets present in the collection include Janet Burroway, Rudyard Kipling, H.E. Bates, Bin Ramke, and Thomas Hardy, as well as a run of Apalachee Review (originally Apalachee Quarterly) from 1973-1987. The collection also contains letters written to David Kirby from 1967-2016 by authors and poets including Joyce Carol Oates, Leon Edel, and Bruce Jay Friedman.

The collection includes a variety of cartographic materials, antiquarian book and map dealer records, correspondence, published articles, bibliographic materials, newspaper clippings, and publications. Highlights of the collection include historical materials and correspondence related to early explorers in North America. Cartographic materials included in the collection consist of map facsimiles, slides, and photostatic reproductions.

The David Smiley Papers include correspondence, literary productions and other printed materials, magazine articles and newspaper clippings, photographs, and his academic robe and pin from the University of Tampa. The correspondence represents three-quarters of the documentation in the collection and is predominantly business-related. The collection material provides some insight into David Smiley's character and his activities as editor-in-chief for the Philadelphia Public Ledger.