Author: Admin

Events, In the News

Now On View – Our New Exhibition “We Were Pioneers”

Admin
Entrance view of the exhibition “We Were Pioneers.”

The University Archives is pleased to announce a new exhibition “We Were Pioneers” for the African American History Month to honor the University of Miami’s African-American Students, Faculty, and Administrators of the 1960s and 1970s.

Front wall of the exhibition space honors 12 student UTrailbrazers.

The exhibition features publications, images, memorabilia, and other artifacts from the University Archives’s collection in 9 exhibition cases and surrounding walls on the first floor of the Otto G. Richter Library. You will be able to find out University of Miami’s desegregation history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic visit to the University, United Black Students, first African-American athletes, first African-American faculty and administrators, local resources on diversity, and so on in the exhibits. This exhibition also showcases Richter’s Special Collections’ materials on Miami’s desegregation and civil rights movement history.

We will create an online version of this exhibition shortly so that future faculty and students can research the materials and resources we put together for the exhibition. Also, we hope this exhibition will inspire our fellow colleagues as well as former and current Canes to archive with us.

Have you thought U’s centennial celebration is only 8 years away? We hope we will be able to curate a monumental exhibition to celebrate the U’s centennial jubilee with historical materials from all the schools, departments, and student groups of the University.

Rear wall of the exhibition space honors UTrailbrazer faculty and administrators.
The rich contents of “Malaika,” published by the United Black Students in the 1970s and 1980s, made possible for us to curate the exhibition.
New Collections

Commencement Programs from 1927 to 2016 Are Now Available Online!

Admin

We are pleased to announce that Richter has just finished digitizing the entire collection of the University of Miami’s commencement programs from 1927 to 2016. Please go to the link below for the landing page of the digital collection.

Commencement Program Collection

See the first commencement program.

The Office of the Commencement and the Richter Library believe that this new digitization holds a long-lasting appeal to the alumni of the University as well as their friends and families all across the country.

We also would like to thank the colleagues at the University Communications and Alumni Association who donated their personal copies of several programs, which we did not have in our collection.

See the faces of the first graduates [source: University of Miami Historical Photograph Collection]

In the News, New Collections

Now Accessible: The University Communications Collection

Admin
The collection, donated in 75 large moving boxes in 2013, is now neatly organized by approximately 4.000 topics and housed in acid free archival folders and boxes. Richter provides optimal environment for storage of our archival collections in the library as well as the offsite storage facility.
The collection, donated in 75 large moving boxes in 2013, is now neatly organized by approximately 4.000 topics and housed in acid free archival folders and boxes. Richter provides optimal environment for storage of our archival collections in the library and at the offsite storage facility.

The University Archives is pleased to announce the addition of a new essential historical resource to our collections, the UM University Communications Collection.

The collection contains historical images, videos, publications, and news clippings of the University from the 1980s to the 2000s, which have never been available at the Archives before. We believe it is going to be one of the most frequently researched materials by the University community to research for their anniversaries and other celebrations.

We appreciate very much the University Communications colleagues who trusted us to transfer such important materials to be archived. They came in 75 large moving boxes in 2013, and the Archives staff and student assistants worked throughout 2016 to sort everything in the boxes, compiled a massive 266-page-long inventory list, and stored them in 135 archival boxes.

Please go to the link below to see the collection record. Also, please click the link provided at “Container List (PDF)” to download the inventory list. Please contact us if you have any questions or need assistance.

Click here for the collection record

New Collections

On Display – Recent Additions to Our Collection

Admin
Tom Wolf's latest book is autographed for the Otto G. Richter Library.
Tom Wolf’s latest book is autographed for the Otto G. Richter Library.

The Otto G. Richter Library received two copies of Tom Wolfe’s latest book “The Kingdom of Speech.” One of the copies is autographed by the acclaimed author for the Library.

The autographed copy of Tom Wolfe’s latest book “The Kingdom of Speech”

The gift was obtained by Kenneth Treister, who is an award-winning international architect best known for the Holocaust Memorial he designed in Miami Beach, and brought to us by Dr. Haim Shaked, who is the Director of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and a Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami.

Mr. Treister is also a renowned author and lecturer. He did research in the Cuban Heritage Collection to write his 2009 book “Havana Forever.” He sent us a message with the gift saying “the Richter Library is a wonderful institution which helped me with my book Havana Forever several years ago.”

“Havana Forever” was written by Kenneth Treister, Felipe J. Préstamo (University of Miami), and Raul B. Garcia (Broward College) and published in 2009

Another recently received gift is an autographed copy of a political thriller “By Silent Majority” from the author Robert Buschel, who majored in psycology and graduated from the University of Miami in 1991. He went on to receive his law degree from the Nova Southeastern University.

Robert Buschel’s novel “By Silent Majority”
The author's autograph and message to the Otto G. Richter Library
The author’s autograph and message to the Otto G. Richter Library

The Sun-Sentinel wrote a story on August 30, 2016, reporting that “well-known lawyer Robert Buschel has played a role in some of South Florida’s most notorious real-life legal cases but his first work of fiction is a political thriller with plenty of Broward references and timely link to presidential campaigns and scandals.”

Click here for the Sun-Sentinel article

We wish the author a great success with his novel.

In the News

Melvin Ladson was the first Black student enrolled in 1961!

Admin
The Miami News reported on June 19, 1961 that fist integrated session went all serene at the University.
The Miami News reported on June 19, 1961 that fist integrated session went all serene at the University.

We are extremely excited to discover this never-been-reported information in The Miami News article published on June 19, 1961, because it is about the first Black student enrolled at the University of Miami in the summer of the first integrated session.

The student’s name was Melvin Ladson, who graduated George Washington Carver High School and was a brilliant student with an IQ of 144. He began college work at 15, got his master’s degree at 21, and he was already working as a speech therapist in Atlanta when he enrolled at the U at 24. Please click the above image to read the whole story.

The article also reported that there were approximately 40 Black students enrolled for the first year of the integration. This is also a new discovery for us because we used to think there were 19 students enrolled. Why isn’t there an exact figure? It is interesting to know that enrollment records did not reflect the race of the students.

FYI, it is a well-known historical fact that Mr. Benny O’Berry was the first African American student to graduate with a degree. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in the School of Education and received his diploma in 1962 at the age of 46.