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This series documents a research project to assess the state of traditional arts in Afro-Caribbean, African-American, and African communities in South Florida at the end of the 1980s. The project was designed and carried out by Brent Cantrell, Folklife Program Coordinator and Festival Coordinator at the Historical Association of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum). Many early settlers of African descent came to South Florida from the Bahamas and the American South to trade or to work on the railroads in the early 1900s, and a significant influx of immigrants of African descent from Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, and other Caribbean nations arrived in South Florida throughout the mid- and late-20th century; however, the proportion of South Floridians of African descent to the general population, however, decreased in the latter part of the 20th century. The “Traditional Arts of the African Diaspora” project identified artists in the Metro-Dade area and presented them in a variety of festival formats, both locally and elsewhere in Florida. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Folk Arts Program, the Metro-Dade Cultural Affairs Council, and the Florida Department of State’s Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs provided support for the project which produced a 24-page pamphlet on the project edited by researchers Tina Bucuvalas and Brent Cantrell. Materials include: notebook of field notes, business cards, programs, and contact information; edited pamphlet of photographs and essays published in 1990; photographic contact sheets, 35mm slides and negatives; and audiocassette tape recordings of interviews and musical performances.

Additional digital formats of audio and image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents a field research project conducted by the Historical Museum (now HistoryMiami Museum) between 1990 and 1993 on the folk and artistic traditions practiced in the Nicaraguan communities of Miami-Dade County.

Subjects include: local religious and other festivals such as the Three Kings Parade, Fiesta de San Sebastian, and Purisima; folk music and dance; decorative arts; foodways; and other expressive traditions such as piñata-making. According to fieldworker Katherine Borland, the Nicaraguan community in Miami consists of three distinct culture groups, all of which are represented in the project: the Spanish-speaking Pacific Coast population; the southern Atlantic coast Creole English-speaking population; and the Atlantic coast Miskito population. Although they share some foodways, their cultural heritages are quite distinct, and the three groups have limited contact with each other. Materials also included folk music and dance, decorative arts, foodways, and other expressive traditions. The research culminated in the publication of a book, Nicaraguan Folklife in Miami, in both English and Spanish.

Materials include: research and field notes by fieldworkers Laurie Sommers and Katherine Borland; informant sheets and archive deposit agreements; reports, articles, and presentation materials in both English and Spanish, and ephemera; photographic prints, contact sheets, 35mm slides, negatives, and logs; audiocassette tape recordings of interviews, musical performances, religious services, and logs; and a copy of the book Nicaraguan Folklife in Miami.

This series documents a seminal field research project and exhibition on the percussion traditions practiced by Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Trinidadians and Bahamians living in Miami. Traditions documented include Bahamian Junkanoo, Trinadadian Steel Pan and Tassa, Haitian Vodou Music, Indo-Caribbean Dholak ensembles, Jamaican Nyabingi, Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena, and Cuban Rumba and Batá. In the second half of the 20th century, Miami was transformed from a predominantly tourist-oriented southern city into an international metropolis in which more than one-third of the population is of Caribbean descent. One expression of this transformation was the proliferation of nightclubs and radio stations that feature Caribbean popular music styles, such as Salsa, Merengue, Reggae, Soca and Konpa. But Miami’s Caribbean musical heritage extended far beyond well-known, popular styles. In more secluded settings and at special festive occasions in Caribbean neighborhoods, the sounds of an immense variety of drums and other percussion instruments constituted complex musical languages which, though often immediately appealing to outsiders, require years to fully learn and understand. In many cases, these musical languages are interrelated with systems of religious or philosophical knowledge. Researchers Steve Stuempfle, Joanne Hyppolite, Alberto de la Reguera, and Dawn Batson spent approximately one year conducting fieldwork beginning in March 1996. Partial funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources. The Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) exhibition of the project was on display May 21-October 26, 1997 and accompanied by educational programming, several publications, demonstrations in the museum, seminars and performances at the Museum and North Miami Beach Performing Arts Theater, and a compact disc (CD) recording. Materials include: documents related to project planning and grants, including field work notes, applications, letters of support, reports, memoranda, inventories, budgets, scripts, exhibition labels, promotional materials, and ephemera; recording logs and permission forms; copies of the CD; press clippings; 35mm photographic slides; audiocassette tape recordings of interviews (in English, Spanish, and Kreyol) and musical performances with attendant notes; and videocassette tape recordings of instrument-making and both public and private ritual performances.

Additional digital formats of audio and image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

The bulk of the collection contains postcards of street scenes, hotels, local attractions and Seminole Indians in Miami-Dade County. Also includes a group of photographs of the 1926 hurricane, tourists at Musa Isle and a family standing in front of the Goodyear Blimp. Many of the postcards include handwritten greetings written between the 1900s up through the 1960s.

The PACE Records consist of photographic images, newspaper clippings, publicity and marketing materials, organization papers and correspondence, and an audio recording collected from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s by Rod Glaubman and Steven Parsons, the founders of the PACE (Performing Arts for Community and Education) organization.

Photographs, contact sheets, slides and negatives capturing images of the Big Orange Festival series of concerts comprise the bulk of the collection.

Photographs and artwork for brochures and posters created for advertising Dade County in the tourist market.

Miami law firm's accounts journal reflect day-to-day transactions during the land boom years. Entries are for: 1922 May 22-1922 December 31 (water damaged). -- 1923 January 2-1923 August 30. -- 1924 November 18-1925 March 27.

Collection includes brochures, letters, postcards and rate sheets from Miami Beach hotels. Several Florida road maps are also included.

Photographs pertaining to Miami-Dade area public primary and secondary schools, and their students, teachers, and school administrators. Images showing a number of school-related activities, including study halls, physical education classes, dance and music recitals, and theatrical performances. Includes photographs of school grounds and structures, in particular, that of the Dade County Agricultural Schools. Also includes images of  Homestead Senior High School, Southwest Miami High, and Santa Clara elementary school, among others.

The collection contain materials pertaining to Eastern Airlines that were collected by employees or other individuals.

Box 1

Folder 1: Continental - Eastern Airlines boycott stamp on dollar bill (text in red ink reads, Don't fly Continental or Eastern Airlines Lorenzo)

Folder 2-4: William Foster Clay papers,1939-1989. Correspondence, travel documents and ephemera. Also includes a letter written by Stanley F. Clay in 1988 pertaining to the demise of Eastern Airlines, inc.

Folder 5-6: Papers of pilot Henry Fustic include flight information procedures, training manuals, scheduling policies and othe information for pilots.

Eastern airlines employee benefits handbook,1979

Box 2

David C. Vaughter collection of contracts between Eastern Airlines Inc. and the Air Line Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association constitution and bylaws, navigational manuals and issues of Flight Talk, 1954-1991.

Mostly pertains to the business and civic activities of Sidney, Claire and Albert Weintraub.

Sidney Weintraub papers, 1919-1979. Documents and some photographs from cases and transactions that he handled: the Cardozo, Flamingo and Surrey hotels; real estate transactions for Isidor Cohen and Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde; Soldier Key; a horse races gambling and book making trial; the Dade County Negro Improvement Association and photographs of Liberty City from an accident case.

Weintraub's civic interests are represented by materials pertaining to the Jewish Home for the Aged, his involvement in the campaigns to elect William Hardie as Dade County sheriff and Ernest Graham as Governor of Florida.

Personal letters to family members recount the impact of World War II on Miami and his efforts to secure a commission in the army. At the time of the Cuban revolution he was in Havana, and his letters give an account of the experience.

Claire Weintraub papers,1952-1972. Topical folders, scrapbooks and some photographs record Claire Weintraub's volunteer services with the following organizations; Florida Children's Commission, Easter Seal Society, March of Dimes, The Governor's Advisory Committee on Decent Literature, Dade County Health Council, Comprehensive Health Planning Council of South Florida, Dade County Citizens Safety Council and the minutes of the Medical School Committee that was charged with the initial planning for the University of Miami Medical School. Also included are materials from her involvement as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1960. The bulk of the material pertains to the Florida Children's Commission.

Albert Weintraub papers,1954-1988. Materials on Islandia, desegregation of Dade County Public Schools, aviation including the South Florida Soaring Association (club for glider pilots) and the Air Training Corps, some issues of Metro Bulletin (1960) and family photographs.

This series contains materials related to a traveling exhibition—“The Scholar and the Collector: Fernando Ortiz, Los Instrumentos de la Música Afrocubana, and the Howard Collection of Percussion Instruments”—displayed at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) in 2000 in collaboration with InterAmericas (Society of Arts and Letter of the Americas), the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), and the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition focused on the relationship between Fernando Ortiz’s music scholarship and the musical instrument collection of the Joseph H. Howard family, both of which are concerned with the relationships between African musical traditions and related traditions in the Americas, particularly African, Cuban, and Haitian percussion traditions. Materials include: an exhibition catalog containing photographs and essays; audiocassette tape recordings of audio components of the exhibition, including musical demonstrations and a 1965 interview with Fernando Ortiz; videocassette tape and audio compact disc (CD) recordings of lectures by Fernando Ortiz, interviews with Victoria Howard and María Fernanda Ortiz Herrera, and marketing video for the exhibition in VHS and VHS-C formats.

Additional digital formats of audio, image, and project report files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents a proposed research project on calypso music conducted by Stephen Stuempfle, then Director of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum). The project, based on years of research by Stuempfle, was intended to offer the first holistic view of calypso’s international history through an online exhibition, a traveling museum exhibition, and public conferences. Highlights include rare musical recordings, as well as interviews and consultation meeting with calypso icon Ray Funk. Materials include: research documents and grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH); audiocassette tape recordings of commercial and broadcast musical performances (several contributed by Kenneth Bilby) and documentary features; audio compact discs (CDs) of musical performances and interviews; and videocassette tape recordings of musical performances, interviews, and television broadcasts.

Additional digital formats of audio files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.