Institution: FGCU
Contact: Kaleena Rivera
Production site created: 2/16/2014 URL: https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/
Total number of titles/objects as of 4/27/2021: 11,367
Total number of files as of 4/27/2021: 12,584
Collections:
America in the Depression Years
Aquila: Student Research Journal
Aquila The FGCU Student Research Journal publishes exceptional student scholarship from all academic disciplines and levels of study at Florida Gulf Coast University. Student scholarship stands at the heart of university life and is one of the most rewarding ways for students to contribute to their field of study, but it also expands their personal knowledge and academic growth. The Editorial Board of Aquila encourages students to participate in this exciting endeavor and to share their ideas and findings with scholars inside and outside their discipline to enrich the community as a whole.
Archives and Special Collections Events
Charles A. Ray Photography Collection
Photojournalist Charles Ray documented the second half of the twentieth century with an unerring eye and an incomparable nose for news. Ray's camera captured a nation in flux. Through his lens, the public experienced the drama of presidential campaigns, the passion of the civil rights movement, and the adventure and tragedy of NASA's race for space. Charles Ray documented our nation's growing pains, including the bloody clashes between police and journalists covering the civil rights protests of the 1960s, and the tragic end of Camelot. He holds awards from The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the National Press Photographers Association, the Illinois Press Photographers Association, and the Chicago Press Photographers Association, as well as a three-time recipient of the Cameraman of the Year award and multiple Emmy Awards. Charles Ray graciously donated his collection to the Florida Gulf Coast University Library in 2002. The Charles A. Ray Photography Collection includes photographs, negatives, daybooks, audiotapes, videotapes, periodicals, newspapers, a reel-to-reel projector, 16mm film, and other professional mementos.
Ellen Peterson Legacy Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3Aellenpeterson
Ellen Peterson was a community leader and activist with a focus on the causes of women’s rights and environmental conservation in Southwest Florida. Ms. Peterson passed away on October 14, 2011 at the age of 88. In a series of interviews taken on October 30, 2018, Ms. Peterson’s friends discussed her life while gathered at her home at the Happehatchee Center. “Ellen Peterson was a passionate social justice activist and Florida's top advocate for environmental conservation. In 2005, Ellen began to conceive preserving the historical and environmental significance of her own property, 'Happehatchee' or Happy River, as being worthy of preservation. In 2006, Ellen created the Happehatchee Center, Inc., a private non-profit organization to preserve the lush five acres of 'old Florida' on the banks of the Estero River” (text courtesy of Happehatchee Herstory).
FGCU Art Galleries Permanent Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3Afgcuartgalleriespermanentcollection
The FGCU Art Galleries Permanent Collection consists primarily of two-dimensional works from the mid-20th century to the present. Notable artists represented in the collection include Harvey Littleton, Warrington Colescott and Ann Wolff. The collection focuses on works of art that have the potential to address complex relationships between art and larger social issues such as cultural diversity, global awareness, social justice, intellectual and spiritual understanding.
Florida Conference of Historians
Florida Postcard Collection
Koreshan Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3A020306
The Koreshan Collection presents a photo-journal documenting the daily life of the Koreshan settlement in Southwest Florida. Founded by Dr. Cyrus Teed, a former Civil War surgeon who later translated his name to the Hebrew version, Koresh, the Koreshan Unity was a faith-based group first established in Chicago. Teed's intention was to create a permanent residence, which was later constructed in Southwest Florida. Located in Estero, the commune quickly grew into a self-reliant township complete with a functioning economy and source of electricity. In 1961, the remaining members donated the land site to the State of Florida for historic preservation.
Florida Postcard Collection
Koreshan Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3A020306
The Koreshan Collection presents a photo-journal documenting the daily life of the Koreshan settlement in Southwest Florida. Founded by Dr. Cyrus Teed, a former Civil War surgeon who later translated his name to the Hebrew version, Koresh, the Koreshan Unity was a faith-based group first established in Chicago. Teed's intention was to create a permanent residence, which was later constructed in Southwest Florida. Located in Estero, the commune quickly grew into a self-reliant township complete with a functioning economy and source of electricity. In 1961, the remaining members donated the land site to the State of Florida for historic preservation.
Maniichuk-Brady Collection of Socialist Realist Art
The Maniichuk-Brady Collection of Socialist Realist Art features works by Ukrainian artists painted during the decades following Stalin and preceding the fall of the U.S.S.R. (1953-1991). Initiated by Stalin, artists throughout the Soviet Bloc were classically trained in realist and socialist realist styles, and commissioned to create works portraying an idealized existence behind the Iron Curtain. Upon Ukrainian independence in 1991, the official art of the Soviet period was discredited as propaganda and the paintings were subjected to systematic destruction. In the mid-90s, Jurii Maniichuk, a Ukrainian-American working for The World Bank in Kyiv, began collecting these endangered works. Only a small portion of the nearly 150 Ukrainian works rescued and conserved due to Maniichuk are represented. The collection encompasses political and military themed works, as well as portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, and depictions of regional Ukrainian industry from the 1950s through the 1980s. After Maniichuk passed away in 2009, his wife, Rose Brady now carries on her his vision to preserve and share the collection. The Florida Gulf Coast University Library is honored to exhibit a sample of the museum quality collection that Jurii Maniichuk believed so vital to protect.
Manuscripts
Minnie L. Gatewood Diaries
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3Agatewood
Minnie L. Gatewood (1875-1944), who married a minister when she was 16 years old, kept diaries chronicling her life in Southwest Florida. The five volumes of her diary cover her life from 1892 to 1900, and are a valuable resource for scholars of Florida history. Mrs. Gatewood also kept a "Want Book" - mostly reflections on religious matters such as "Christian stewardship" - with the latest dated entry being from 1936. Mrs. Gatewood wrote mainly of her travels and family life, and her role as a minister's wife. Her husband, the Rev. George W. Gatewood (1862-1947), published On Florida's Coconut Coasts, in 1944. Their granddaughter, Hazel Hoffman Wall's autobiography Cracker Girl; A Love Story, published in 2006 includes stories of growing up with the Gatewoods in Southwest Florida.
Oral History Collection
Sanibel Historical Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3A020304
The Sanibel Historical Collection presents a visual history chronicling the development of Sanibel, one of Florida's premiere destinations. Originally inhabited by the Calusa Indians, the Spanish later colonized the region until Florida was ceded to the United States. Sanibel Island houses a variety of historic landmarks, including a lighthouse built in 1884 that is still operational, and six thousand acres worth of habitat set aside as a national wildlife refuge since 1945.
Southwest Florida Environmental Collection
Southwest Florida History Collection
The Mangrove Review
Mangrove Review is the student-edited literary and arts magazine for Florida Gulf Coast University, showcasing the work of FGCU students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and members of the community.
Turner Railroad Collection
In the fall of 2014, scholar Gregg M. Turner gifted Florida Gulf Coast University with an extensive collection of east coast railroad history. Turner is considered one of the foremost authorities of Florida railroads. The large collection consisting of bonds, publications, advertisements, photographs, and administrative material dating back to 1830 that Turner used to meticulously research and illustrate four books on the history of railroads in the Sunshine State.
Uncommon Friends Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3A020302
James D. Newton (1905-1999) was a prominent twentieth century entrepreneur and author of Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh, which recounts his friendship with these visionary figures. The Uncommon Friends Foundation, established in 1993 and named after Newton's memoir, is dedicated to lifelong character building among today's youth and business leaders, and the historic preservation of James D. Newton's papers, photographs, and artifacts in the City of Fort Myers. The Foundation and collection reside in the Burroughs Home (1901), located in the historic district of Fort Myers, Florida. In 2012, the Uncommon Friends Foundation and Florida Gulf Coast University Library partnered to digitally preserve and provide public access to this captivating collection of materials.
University Archives
William R. Maples Collection
https://fgcu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fgcu%3A020110
Dr. William R. Maples (1937-1997) was a world renown forensic anthropologist, who oversaw the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History. The digital collection includes images and documents pertaining to his many high profile cases, including the identification of the real skeleton of Francisco Pizarro, whose bones were thought to be safely tucked away in a crypt for over 80 years. After many months of persistent requests, a Zachary Taylor fanatic, with the blessing of the Taylor family, got Maples to examine the bones of the twelfth president to see if there were signs of arsenic poisoning, pointing to an assassination. Due to his notoriety in the field, Maples was also granted permission to study the skeleton of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, whose body was a scientific anomaly during his life and continues to captivate contemporary audiences. Maples most famous investigations revolves around the murders of the Romanov family, a mass execution in 1918, which was shrouded in mystery until the bodies were found a little over 70 years later. It would be Maples, who would finally identify the skeletons and allow them to be put to rest
World War II Collection
These collection items focus on WWII and the immediate postwar period of the 1940s. Materials include oral histories, correspondences, diaries, ephemera, memoirs, photographs, and more.
Noteworthy features of this site:
Has an extensive collection on the history of the east coast railroad