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About the USF Libraries Digital Collections.
Digital collections in the USF Libraries originate from several sources:
- Digital collections created from a physical collection owned by the USF Libraries, primarily from the Tampa Library Special Collections Department
- Digital collections created from physical collections owned by USF Libraries' partners
- Digital collections that were purchased and are hosted locally
- Digital collections for which USF Libraries purchased subscription access (fee based, network affiliation, or freely available)
USF Libraries Digital Collections History
Digitization and digital collection building began at the USF Tampa Library Special Collections Department in the fall of 1995. In 1997 the library formally began to develop a plan to create a "virtual library" via twelve Virtual Library Implementation Teams. The Digitization Project Group (DPG) studied current standards and best practices in digitization and digital collections and created a plan for the organization of the Library Digitization Center (LDC). The DPG finished its work with the formal organization of the LDC in 1999, while the overall Virtual Library Project work concluded in 2001. Digitization staff have continuously studied emerging standards and best practices and researched new procedures to keep the digitization unit productive and efficient. In that spirit of innovation and efficiency the unit has gone through several reorganizations.
A Digital Collections & Imaging Unit was constituted in the fall of 2005 under a plan to streamline imaging, digitization, and digital collections operations by merging staff from multiple units across the USF Tampa Library. Greater efficiency was attained by gathering staff expertise and equipment into a single unit sharing the same facilities. In early 2008, the unit was renamed Digital Collections & Services in order to emphasize its role in assisting patrons. In December 2008, DCS formally merged with the Special Collections Department to form Special & Digital Collections.
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Collections
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This digital collection contains the University of South Florida annual yearbook. Aegean was the name of USF yearbook from the 1963-64 academic year through the 1972-73 academic year. The yearbook was unnamed in the 1975-76 and 1976-77 academics years. In the 1977-78 academic year, the yearbook was given the name Twentieth Century or 20th Century.
Aegean / USF Yearbook
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Alicia Appleman-Jurman was only 11 years old when the Nazis invaded & occupied Poland. Alicia survived the World War II & the Jewish Holocaust, the only member of her 7-person family (father, mother, 4 brothers) to do so. She swore on the grave of her oldest brother, Zachary, that, were she to survive the War, she would bear witness to others about the atrocities she witnessed & experienced.
Appleman-Jurman began by speaking in schools & synagogues and with youth groups, but eventually the children who heard her story asked her to write it down so that their parents could also hear her story. Alicia: My Story, which she wrote over a 3-year period starting in 1982, is her answer to those children's requests. The book is now a staple in Holocaust education around the country.
This digital collections consists of 45 photographs depicting Alicia's post-war journey from Europe to Israel and her life in Israel and Cyprus.
Alicia Appleman-Jurman Photographs
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From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected in historical studies.
All-Sports Library
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The Yorkunas collection chronicles the weekly – sometimes daily – correspondence between Tampa commercial artist Alvin P. Yorkunas and his wife, Mary Ann. An accomplished artist, Yorkunas often illustrated his letters and envelopes with images drawn from both his personal life and military experiences. These letters give a rare and often humorous insight into the daily life of an early Tampa resident, his drawings from abroad and his memories of home. The collection includes correspondence, personal journals, military documents, postcards, photographs, artwork, printed ephemera, and realia.
Alvin P. Yorkunas Collection
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This weekly boy's magazine from the early 1900s focuses on violent conflicts between whites (frontiersmen, soldiers, trappers, et. al) and Indian tribes in the American West and Great North-West. Indians are typically portrayed as bloodthirsty and vengeful, with plots centering on white men's fears that Indians will destroy their means of livelihood and carry off their women and children.
American Indian Weekly
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Archibald Slaymaker (1867-1939), the son of Amos Barr Slaymaker, owned and operated the Slaymaker-Whittier Dry Goods Store in Clarke's Gap, Virginia. The Archibald Slaymaker Collection includes carte de visite photographs, black and white prints, and glass plate negatives. The collection is largely family-centric, documenting the home and social life of the Slaymaker family in Virginia's Albemarle County during the years leading up to the Civil War. The collection also includes the typescript of a Slaymaker family history in the 20th century written by Addison Slaymaker, a Tampa resident and the donor of this historic photograph collection.
There are 19 carte de visite photographs in the collection, including shots of Jefferson and Varina Davis, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, John S. Mosby, Braxton Bragg, as well as other Confederate officers. There are also 31 black and white prints and 39 extant glass plate negatives...
Archibald Slaymaker Glass Plate Negative Collection
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From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected in historical studies.
Army and Navy Weekly
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The Art and Art History Collection features a wide range of digital images with an emphasis on the history of Western art. Image sets include: The Dresden Collection, Brueghel and Rubens, Ancient Greek Art (Architecture and Sculpture), Ancient Art (Minoan and Roman), Roman Art, Michelangelo, Italian Renaissance, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, and Contemporary Architecture. Images from art history textbooks include: Gardner, Expanded Gardner, Stokstad, Gilbert, Hartt, Cunningham, and Reich. There are 3,645 images in this collection.
Access note: Full access to this collection is currently available only to authorized users coming from USF IP addresses. For more information or to report technical issues please send email to spcinfo@lib.usf.edu.
Art and Art History Collection (Saskia)
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The Florida State Reform School (a.k.a. Florida Industrial School and later Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys) was in use from 1900-2011. From its inception it was suppose to be a refuge for troubled children convicted of crimes. By initial design, children were to receive training and education that would propel them to become productive citizens. This design proved conceptually sound but in practice difficult to maintain.
Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys
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This growing collection of survivor testimonies, conducted in the U.S. and Africa by University of South Florida Department of Anthropology Professors Elizabeth Bird and Dr. Erin Kimmerle, USF Department of History Professor Fraser Ottanelli, and Tampa Police Detective Charles Massucci documents the massacre that took place on October 5th 1967, in the Delta State of community of Asaba, in Nigeria.
For more information visit: AsabaMemorial.org and the USF Libraries Asaba Memorial Project Academic Resource Pages.
Asaba Memorial Oral History Project
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This digital collection contains the daily journals of Audubon wardens and statewide reports on certain sites and projects cover activities from 1900 to 1970, with most of the materials concentrated between the 1930s and 1950s.
Audubon Florida Records, 1900-1970
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Ocean bottom-feeders, earth-dwelling gnomes, a populace of vegetables, and a group of rebellious apes populate Dion Boucicault’s sprawling nineteenth-century play, Babil and Bijou. The work, commissioned by a thirty-eight year old Baron named Earl of Londesborough, and financed handsomely at the whims of Boucicault, was intended to be a “mammoth spectacular.” Boucicault did not disappoint and, when the eighteen tableaux extravaganza debuted at Covent Garden in 1872, it was filled with dancers, Amazonian warriors, and abundant, costumed sea life.
The plot meanders through a forest, an ocean, a garden, and eventually the moon, as a half-fairy attempts to claim her rightful sprightly throne. At every turn, she encounters rebellion and masses rising against the ruling class. This causes great consternation to the displaced ruling class, but they steady their fears with the idea that this upheaval will eventually run its course. During a particularly inverted visit to the moon, she disco
Babil and Bijou
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The press was one of the most effective ways for immigrants to connect with their community; newspapers and periodicals disseminated information about native values, American culture, and the immigrants' connection to both. Tampa's immigrants wasted no time in establishing newspapers to serve the ethnic enclaves of Ybor City and West Tampa.
Our collection of Bohemia consists of 24 issues published from July 22, 1916 through December 30, 1916.
These periodicals are extremely rare, and are a treasured part of our Floridiana collections. We are working diligently to digitize other local Hispanic periodicals and monographs to make them more easily available for researchers worldwide.
Bohemia
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The Brahman was an unauthorized and short-lived monthly newspaper for the USF community. The paper began publication without informing USF administrators or asking for permission, but used USF’s name while charging a dime per copy. USF President John Allen’s administration told Brahman staff to cease and desist publication, implying legal action would be taken. For those interested in USF during the mid-1960s, the Brahman has numerous profiles of faculty and student activities.
The Brahman
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From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected in historical studies.
Brave and Bold
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Traditional family relationships are reinvented and explored in Dion Boucicault’s 1877 play, A Bridal Tour. The plot reveals long-forgotten infidelities and tales of abandoned children, interrupting the excitement of two marriage celebrations. A Bridal Tour entertained audiences with intercepted secret messages and accusations that cause true identities to be revealed. The play comes to a neat resolution as the characters face the consequences of their previous missteps. Boucicault summarizes this happy ending in the words of the lovable father figure of the play, Silas, who says, “Allow the Californian author to stand against the music-master and it balances the account.”
Interestingly, Boucicault was surrounded by a similar flurry of speculation, as his parentage has also been a fact of contention. Legally Boucicault claims, and is claimed by, Samuel Smith Boursiquot, a failed wine merchant. However, there is great speculation that Dr. Dionysius Lardner, a well-known professor, wr
Bridal Tour
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From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected in historical studies.
Buffalo Bill Stories
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Burgert Brothers was Tampa’s leading commercial photographic firm from 1918 to the early 1960s. Established by brothers Al and Jean, the studio focused primarily on photographing the Tampa Bay area, including Ybor City, Port Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Ballast Point. The Burgert Brothers' photographs captured Tampa's development from small town to major city and include images of daily activities, festivals, churches, homes, businesses, and streets.
Special Collections holds 859 prints from Burgert Brothers negatives, all of which have been digitized and are available online. Click here for more information about the collection of prints and additional resources.
Copyright statement - click here.
This digital collection was made possible by a generous gift from the Frank E. Duckwall Foundation in 1996.
Burgert Brothers Collection of Tampa Photographs
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Day by day our present is being added to our past. The USF Library's commitment to preserve and protect our state's history is being fulfilled through the establishment of an oral history program. There are many individuals whose lives and careers have been impacted through their association with our state, and our state is a better place because of that association. We must collect these spoken memories and personal commentaries of historical significance before it is too late and they are lost forever. We must preserve this record of firsthand life experiences to benefit subsequent generations of students and scholars.
The USF Tampa Library Oral History Program began in 1997 with an endowment from Piers Anthony and his wife Carol Jacob. Additional support was provided through a gift from Doyle E. Carlton, Jr. This founding collection is named in honor of Piers Anthony, his wife Carol Jacob, and Doyle E. Carlton, Jr...
Carlton-Anthony Tampa Oral History Project
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The Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) was a Type II research center that was part of the USF College of Business Administration. CEDR’s mission was to initiate and conduct innovative research on economic development. CEDR’s data center and web site served to enhance development efforts at the University of South Florida, its College of Business, throughout the Tampa Bay region, and the State of Florida.
CEDR provided the university community, local communities, and Tampa Bay’s economic development professionals with information and analysis on a wide range of urban, regional, and international issues affecting the seven-county region. Research results are reported in CEDR’s quarterly economic report, The Tampa Bay Economy.
Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) Collection
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This digital collection consists of the publications in e-book form of the University of South Florida Center for Urban Transportation Research.
Currently there are over 300 documents online. New titles will become available as they are cataloged.
Center for Urban Transportation Research Publications [USF]
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El Centro Asturiano is one of Tampa’s early Spanish social clubs. The club, founded in 1902, catered to Latin males, most of whom were immigrant workers in Ybor City’s cigar factories. Members paid a monthly fee for health insurance, use of club facilities, and guaranteed burial. This is a collection of membership record portrait snapshots.
Centro Asturiano de Tampa Membership Records Photograph Collection
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There are three main components of the Charles Ringling Family Collection: the Ringling mansion, the archives from the Ringling Brothers Circus, and biographical materials centered on Charles Ringling family. The digitized images in this collection are a sampling of the larger collection available at the Jane Bancroft Cook Library in Sarasota.
Charles Ringling Family Collection
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This digital collection, with material published from 1891 - 1978, consists of e-books that tell the history of various counties, cities/towns, and regions of Florida.
City, County, and Regional Histories E-Book Collection
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Andy Huse, assistant librarian in USF Libraries’ Special & Digital Collections, interviewed people from the Columbia Restaurant Group, including the executive chef, a legendary waiter, the Chief Executive Officer, and other staff members. This series examines the history of this legendary restaurant, the family’s business struggles, community issues, and the Gonzmart family’s legacy of generosity.
These interviews also played a vital part in Huse’s book, “The Columbia Restaurant: Celebrating a Century of History, Culture, and Cuisine (University Press of Florida, 2009).
Columbia Restaurant Oral History Project
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Operated by the same family since 1905, the Columbia Restaurant is the oldest restaurants in Florida and one of the largest Spanish restaurants in the nation. With humble beginnings as a café and saloon in Ybor City, the Hernandez and Gonzmart families expanded the business, first into adjacent space on its city block, and later opened restaurants around the state. The Columbia is most notable for how it evolved and adapted with the changing developments in Ybor City. Acquired by Casimiro Hernandez Sr. in 1905 from a Mr. Vasquez, Hernandez cultivated a solid business and bought the property in 1912. The Saloon Columbia quickly became the expanded Columbia Restaurant with the help of new partners (the Garcias of neighboring La Fonda Restaurant) at the onset of state and federal Prohibition laws.
During the 1930s, the Columbia’s Don Quixote dining room cashed in on the...
Columbia Restaurant/Gonzmart Family Collections, 1903-
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This collection includes resources based on community health research in Monteverde, Costa Rica, that has been done in affiliation with the Monteverde Institute. For example, since 2001, the USF Globalization and Community Health Field School, has produced valuable research on health related issues in the Monteverde Zone. Through this digital library project, supported by the University of South Florida Libraries, the University of Vermont Libraries, and the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, the full text of research-based final reports and final PowerPoint presentations are available and searchable through a variety of search options. This digital library project is part of an integrated effort by the Monteverde Institute to provide full text access to Monteverde-based information that will assist researchers, practitioners, and students focusing their work in the Monteverde Zone.
The digital resources available for this collection are image+text or "born-digital"
Community Health Collection [Monteverde Institute]
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This collection comprises over 120 testimonies with the Allied service men and women who helped liberate World War II (WWII) concentration camps. Author Michael Hirsh recorded the interviews for his book The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust (New York, 2010) and donated the tapes and transcripts to the USF Libraries Holocaust & Genocide Studies Center.
Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Cuishla Machree (a Hiberno-Irish term of endearment meaning “Pulse of my Heart”) is one of Dion Boucicault’s “minor” Irish plays. It is a reworking of his previous failed play, The Spae Wife, which is itself an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Guy Mannering. It was first staged in 1888, but failed in both Chicago and Boston. Boucicault acted the part of Andy Dolan, a rakish Irishman who supplied the play’s comic relief. The failure of Cuishla Machree left Boucicault destitute and at his lowest ebb creatively.
The prompt book available here contains extensive notes and alterations in Boucicault’s hand, and provides a unique look at the playwright’s constant willingness to change his artistic vision based on the response—or lack thereof—of the audience.
Cuishla Machree
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From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected in historical studies.
The Deadwood Dick Library
- From the mid 19th to the early 20th century, the fiction genres known as dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and story papers flourished in England and America. The increasing mechanization of the printing process, more efficient distribution methods, and a rising literacy rate all contributed to this publishing phenomenon. Printed on the cheapest of paper, with lurid cover illustrations, dime novels (which found a name in their ten cent price tag) and story papers were considered ephemeral, to be read, often in secret, passed on to friends, or discarded. These delightful items, ancestors of the ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks of today, reveal the reading tastes of a population often neglected i