01. Manuscripts Collections

Scope and Contents

The 17th-20th Century Correspondence and Documents consists of letters, documents, and various forms of correspondence relating to notable names and celebrities from between 1618 and 1981.

Online Copies Available

Select materials from this collection have been digitized and are available through the FSU Digital Library.

Scope and Contents

Correspondence. This collection is comprised of various groups of letters about Florida, dating between 1837 and 1891 most of which deal primarily with land issues.

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This collection related to the 27th Troop Carrier Squadron includes a manuscript that consists of memoirs entitled "Freedom Rings," which were gathered from members of the Army's 27th Troop Carrier Squadron about their time in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. The squadron was in the CBI Theater from 1942-1945. The squadron was involved in many Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and SACO (Sino-American-Cooperative-Organization) operations, including rescues and liberations of P.O.W.'s. The collection includes their veteran's association magazine/newsletters as well.

Scope and Contents This collection relates to the 97th Bombardment Group which was based in England, Africa and Italy during World War II and the first operational bomb group in England in 1942. The collection contains documents (mostly photocopies) on missions, statements and statistics, three diaries, and newspaper articles. Their daily operations reports, narrative reports, and casualty reports detail their accomplishments and their losses. Included are a collection of videos, audio tapes, and microfilm. Included are copies of three personal diaries by Alex Blair, Jr., LeRoy Teschendorf, and Herman F. Lykins. Also included is an extensive photograph collection of flight crews, air fields, and...

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to the 385th Bombardment Group, Heavy, that was stationed at Station 155, Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England during World War II.  The collection includes a publication which documents the group's history during the war.

Scope and Contents The collection of the 460th Heavy Bombardment Group Society contains a unit history of this B-24 U.S. Army Air Corps Group, 55th Wing, 760th, 761st, 762nd, 763rd Squadrons and Group Headquarters, which served in the Italian Campaign. This collection primarily focuses on the memory of the war and those who served in the 460th. Included is a listing of the airmen who were held as prisoners of war, including their squadrons, positions on the plane (e.g. pilot, gunner), the date, mission, and what country or stalag in which they were held. Also included is a booklet, "Remembering the 460th Bomb Group (H)," which contains photographs, personnel lists, and maps, and was prepared as a...

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to the 484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) that was assigned to the 15th Air Force and based in Torretta, Italy as a component of the Foggia Airfield Complex during World War II and assigned B-24 Liberator heavy bombers.  The materials contained in this collection were subsequently assembled during the post-war period by the 484th Bombardment Group Association.  The collection contains official reports, data sheets, statistics, newspapers, Missing Air Crew Reports, personal histories, photographs, and unit histories.

Scope and Contents

Original typewritten manuscript and galley proofs of Leon Odell Griffith's A Long Time Since Morning. The typewritten manuscript included handwritten edits, is unbound, and has some documentation from the publisher, Random House. The galley proofs are also unbound with handwritten edits and are stored folded. They are dated March 18, 1954.

Scope and Contents

Records of the American Association of University Women, Florida Division, including publications, reports, press clippings, directories, convention records, and Board of Directors records.

Online Copies Available

Born-digital materials from this collection are available through the FSU Digital Library.

Content Description

This collection refers to Zelma D. Abarbanel, who served as a Technician Fourth Grade with the WAC Second Detachment during World War II. Abarbanel worked as a stenographer and assistant for the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the Office of Weapons. The collection includes a transcript of an oral history interview, one letter, the military records of both Abarbanel and her husband, Milton Goldman Abarbanel, and several photographs depicting Abarbanel’s life as a WAC.

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A testamentary dated July 17, 1893, signed by Paul Thompson, County Judge, Gadsden County. The document appoints C.E.L. Allison and Elizabeth S. Allison as Executor and Executrix of Abraham Kurkindolle Allison's estate.

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Print documents and photographs documenting the career of A.C. Lyles at Paramount Pictures Corporation and as an advisor to the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. The collection includes scripts, production records, financial records, books, awards, personal documents, political correspondence, celebrity correspondence, and newspaper clippings.

Note to researchers: This collection is in process, and portions remain unavailable to researchers at this time. Please contact FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives for more information.

Scope and Contents

Account Book (possibly a store account book) Feb. to Nov. 1872.

Content Description

This collection relates to Donald and Portia Ackerman. Donald Ackerman served as a pilot on B-24 bombers with the 44th Bomb Squadron, 506th Bombardment Group, in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. He continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years and served during the Korean War.This collection contains an oral history transcript, artifacts, audio tapes, documents, letters, maps, pamphlets, and photographs relating to Donald and Portia Ackerman.

Scope and Contents

While the Adams Brothers Store Ledger covers only a brief period of the existence of this business (1898-1899), it documents the operations of a late 19th and early 20th Century mercantile store in north Florida. It is significant to researchers studying North Florida's economic history during this period.

Content Description

This collection relates to James Adams who served as an infantryman with the 26th “Yankee” Division and later the 87th Infantry regiment, part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. The collection contains letters and postcards from James Adams to family, mostly his mother.

Abstract

Research materials and correspondence used by FSU faculty member Adeline W. WIlkes in writing biographical materials about Dr. Doris Clack.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of the papers of United States Navy Admiral Richard H. Leigh. They include a 17-volume holograph diary, dating 1917-1944, containing official orders, holograph and typed letters, newspaper clippings, printed programs, maps, pictures, and other related items. Also included is a four volume set of personal papers, and a book which Leigh entitled, Whereas, which consists of newspaper clippings, family pictures, programs, doctor bills, and other materials. Many of these documents relate to the history and development of the United States Navy, World War I, and events leading to the conflict with Japan and World War II. Other...

Scope and Contents

Two prints of Walt Whitman advertisements from 1889 and 1855.

Content Description

This collection relates to Charles Aiken who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the European Theater of Operation during World War Two. This collection contains a newspaper clipping and an oral history transcript.

Scope and Contents These photocopies of Civil War papers include a letter from Bird B. Wright of Shepherdstown in Jefferson County, Virginia to his wife Amy R. Wright of Quincy Florida in Gadsden County. The letter dated September 21, 1862, informs her that he has been badly wounded while in combat near Sharpsburg, Maryland and gives instructions how to get to the place where he is and tells her that she or his brother should come to see him. Among other things, he tells her that his Captain was killed the same day he was wounded. Also included is a Certificate of Parole, Waldo, Alachua County, Florida, dated May 20, 1865 to J. A. Tompkins...Private of Co. B. 2nd Regiment, Florida Calvary, and a...

Scope and Contents

The Gilchrist Papers are comprised of the official papers of Albert Waller Gilchrist, 20th Governor of Florida, as well as newspaper articles, military and state official documents, items pertaining to the naming of Gilchrist County, materials regarding educational institutions including Carolina Military Institute and West Point, personal correspondence, genealogical research, and papers pertaining to Gilchrist's estate and will.

Also known as MSS 0-125.

Scope and Contents

46 original drawings used as illustrations for Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts, 1941.

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This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of Aldo Busot, who lived in Cuba during World War II.

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Alec Rackowe manuscripts for "The Slope of Love," "Summertime," and "Take Me to Hollywood." Also included in the collection are several letters from Rackowe's editor at The American Magazine.

Scope and Contents Facsimile reproduction of letters written by Alexander Farnsley of Fernelea to Mary Elizabeth Thurman of Louisville, whom he always addressed as "Dear Bettie." The letters were written between 1856-1860 and reproduced on the occasion of the weddings of two of their great granddaughters, Sally Burrell Farnsley, married at Louisville, July 28, 1962, and Anne Peaslee Farnsley, married at Hamburg, Germany, August 5, 1962. The letters and notes of Alexander Farnsley were handwritten and, although reproduced, are in good condition, but the one letter written by Ms. Thurman to him and signed "Bettie" is only fairly legible. In the collection is a printed...

Scope and Contents

Includes small press and alternative publications, with a focus on content related to everyday experiences and societal norms. Publishers include Alternative Comics, Fantagraphics Books, Slave Labor Graphics, Vertigo Comics, and independently produced zines, as well as Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, Oni Press, and Marvel Comics.

Scope and Contents

Local histories, genealogical research, printed agendas, and notes regarding the Thomas Armstrong Caldecott family.

Note to researchers: This collection is in process, and portions remain unavailable to researchers at this time. Please contact FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives for more information.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Allen Jere Tillery who served with the United States Marine Corps in the 22nd Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division, in the Pacific Theater at the battles for Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Guam, and Tinian. This collection includes a published memoir of Tillery's time in service: Well and Smartly Done: a remembrance of war 1943-1945.

Scope and Contents The Monte Allen U.S.S. Kwajalein (CVE-98) collection contains comprehensive records pertaining to officially recorded, declassified daily life aboard the Casablanca Class Escort Carrier U.S.S. Kwajalein, an aircraft carrier, as well as various visual and auditory artifact materials relating to the work and lives of its crewmen. The collection specifically regards the life of U.S. Navy sailor Monte Allen, information he was able to preserve, and the first-hand observations he deemed important. Allen authored the collection himself. The collection contains detailed photocopies of and notes on ship records, including war diaries, daily logs, muster rolls, and reports of changes...