Tag: collections

Events

Playing History Detective

Admin

Last week, I researched the origin of Beaux Arts Festival of Art, which is a well-know annul outdoor art event on the Coral Gables Campus. The organizer has created a beautiful website, which describes the organization, the event, and its history. Yet, a researcher contacted us looking for original materials on the first Festival took place in 1952.

I was able to find a Miami Herald article dated May 4, 1952 on the first Beaux Arts Festival in the Beaux Arts Scrapbooks. I also found several images on 1952 Clothesline Art Sale in the Historical Photograph Collection. (contact sheet and negatives only available, please see the image below).

The only information available for the images is the caption “Clothesline Art Sale” and the year 1952 written in pencil on the back of the contact sheet. We cannot identify the names of the artists or customers in the images. But, this is still a wonderful discovery for me.

Digital Collections, Events, New Collections

Hidden Collection Becomes a Digital Treasure

Admin

the carrell

The Carrell: Journal of the Friends of the University of Miami Library was published from 1960 to 1996 to promote Richter Library and its notable special collections. It featured articles, poetry, and artwork by a range of contributors including Clark Mixon Emery , Theodore Bolton, Charlton Tebeau and many others. The entire run of the journal was digitized in 2012 to commemorate Richter’s golden anniversary.

The Friends of the University of Miami Library, now called the Friends of the University of Miami Libraries, is a library support organization founded in 1960 by a group of University of Miami faculty, alumni, and community leaders. The Friends play a vital role in supporting programs, securing gifts, and funding projects for the Libraries. The first president was the renowned Everglades preservationist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

Digitization of rare and unique special collections has been one of the major initiatives of the University of Miami Libraries in the last decade. It takes a library-wide collaboration assisted by Richter departments in preservation, digitization, metadata, and digital repository. In the last few short years, the University Archives has made accessible The Miami Hurricane Archive Online and the University of Miami Historical Photograph Collection, which are among the most popular digital collections Richter offers.

Please go to the link below to browse and research the collection.

http://merrick.library.miami.edu/archives/asu0660/

 

In the News

Major Donor from the 1940s

Admin

In late October, we received an out-of-town researcher. The friendly woman looked straight at me, shook my hand enthusiastically, and said “Hello, I am from the Brockway Museum!” The name rang a bell right away, because everyone at Richter Library calls the name at least once a day.

Mr. George A. Brockway was one of the first major supporters of the university library. He was an industrialist from Cortland, NY, wintered in Miami Beach, and in October 1943 he gave $100,000 in war bonds for a new library funding. For him the Brockway Lecture Hall in the Otto G. Richter Library was named.

The researcher seemed very pleased to know Mr. Brockway’s contributions for the Library and other University causes have been documented in University’s historical collections and we could produce copies of them while she waited. Later, we have also sent a complementary high-resolution image of Mr. Brockway presenting a check to the UM’s first president Dr. Ashe from the Historical Photograph Collection (below) for the museum.

george brockway

Please go to the link below to research and browse the University of Miami Historical Photograph Collection.

http://merrick.library.miami.edu/digitalprojects/photographs.php