Collections

This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of an African American private in the 84th Aviation Squadron during World War II in the European Campaign as he details tensions between black soldiers and white officers.

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.

Manuscript letter of David Levy Yulee, Fernandina, Florida, March 4, 1877, to General Henry R. Jackson, Savannah, Georgia concerning a personal pledge on bonds and how to resolve the issue. Yulee (1810-1886) served in the United States House of Representatives (1841-1845) and the United States Senate from Florida (1855-1861). Yulee, at this point in his life, is a railroad executive. Henry Rootes Jackson (1820-1898) was a United States Army and Confederate General, and also at this time a railroad executive and banker.

Six video recordings documenting Justyn Bell's interview with Mississippi State Senator David Jordan near the Sumner, Mississippi courthouse, including discussion of Emmett Till.

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 Paulo Collection contains 70 digital photographs of Broward County landmarks taken by local photographer, David Paulo. The focus of Paulo's work is documenting buildings and landscapes in South Florida that are significant to culture and life of minority communities. Neighborhoods and cities that he documents include Sistrunk, Lauderhill, and Dania Beach. Since beginning the project in 2023, many of the sites that Paulo photographed have disappeared.

The USF Library's David P. Wollowick Currency Collection contains items dating from the 1760s to the 1950s, with the bulk from the1850s through the 1860s. During this period there was no centralized American banking system so states, townships, and individual banks issued their own currency. The "Free Banking" movement of the period proclaimed citizens' right to set up banks rather than the states, leading many businesses to print their own currency as well. Bank Notes of America, 1859 listed 9,916 notes issued by 1,365 banks, with roughly another 200 banknotes omitted from their listing.

A collection of 25 nineteenth century newspapers mostly from Alabama, but also from Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana and Georgia.

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.