Collections

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 Degen Resource Room has an extensive historic playbill collection. The collection consists of playbills of productions from all over the world beginning in 1873. The Degen Resource Room is continuing to catalog this massive collection, so the entire scope of this collection cannot yet be assessed. However, it is estimated that we hold one of the premiere playbill collections in the nation. As cataloging continues to take place, we will be able to ascertain the extent of this very special and unique collection.

The Degen Resource Room holds a large collection of blueprints of shop construction drawings and stage designs. This collection encompasses stage designs for Broadway and off-Broadway productions, touring theatrical productions, prestigious awards shows and television set designs. Currently, over 750 set designs have been cataloged with an estimated 500-750 more to be assessed.

The Denis Lomax collection consists of photographs, photograph negatives, scrapbooks, printed materials, correspondence and writings that document the lives of filmmakers Leila Roosevelt and Armand Denis as well as their families. The collection contains materials related to Leila Roosevelt's parents, filmmaker, entrepreneur and sportsman Cornelius Louis André Roosevelt (Andre Roosevelt), as well as architect and artist Adelheid Lange Roosevelt. The collection highlights Leila Roosevelt and Armand Denis's travels and film productions such as the documentary film based on the Democratic Republic of the Congo entitled Dark Rapture (Magie Africaine) (1938) and a film based in Bali, Indonesia entitled Goona Goona (Love Powder) (1932). Materials documenting the Anthropoid Ape Research foundation in Dania Beach, Florida, founded by Leila Roosevelt and Armand Denis, along with personal papers of their families are also included in this collection.

The materials in this collection tell the history of the Fine Arts programs at Florida Southern College since 1923.