Collections

Editorial and research files of Dr. William S. Coker, Editor, the Papers of Panton, Leslie and Company. Includes an extensive body of correspondence, business papers, court records, and other documents relating to the British firm and its successors, John Leslie and Company, and John Forbes and Company, 1739-1847. The company, under a monopoly granted by the Spanish government, engaged in an extensive Indian trade throughout the Old Southwest, and continued under British and American governance. The documents in the editorial files, photocopied from depositories throughout the world, were selectively published on microfilm.

Manuscript, ink on paper, containing an absolution from Pope Pius VII. A small metal crucifix is attached by a braided string and red wax seal.

This collection documents the research materials assembled for a scholarly study examining transformations in Cuban society and the formation of national identity in the early twentieth century through the historical figure of Alberto Yarini y Ponce de León. Materials consist of copies of contemporary newspaper accounts documenting Yarini's life, public image, and death; court and legal records related to criminal proceedings and civic governance; memoirs and personal recollections offering insight into elite social networks and urban life in Havana; and published scholarly works addressing Cuban nationalism, race, class, gender, and political development. The collection also contains interpretive research notes and annotated bibliographic materials used in the development of the thesis, which explores the emergence of Yarini as both a historical figure and a cultural myth.