The Archives & Special Collections
Archiving USF’s History
In 1962, the administration called for the creation of a Special Collections department to house the university archives and other unique materials. Robert Simmons, USF’s first construction contractor, donated the collection’s first items, including family correspondence going back to 1820. The Florida Historical Society transferred its headquarters and collection to USF that same year (an arrangement that lasted until 1994). Notable Florida politicians, including Governor LeRoy Collins and Congressman Sam Gibbons, pledge their papers to the repository.
Faculty helped guide invaluable archival materials to the library. Gary Mormino, Steve Lawson, Susan Greenbaum, Cheryl Rodriguez, and others all made big contributions in their own ways, helping Special Collections to acquire some important archival collections in the 1980s and 90s. The collections of Tony Pizzo, a respected author of history, and Hampton Dunn, a journalist and author who had a broad interest in Florida, would later form a strong general foundation for local research. Pizzo believed that his “invaluable” collection should remain intact and available to researchers. He concluded “the Special Collections library at USF is probably the best reservoir in Florida.” Special Collections director Jay B. Dobkin said, “We feel this collection is vital to understanding and preserving Tampa’s history.” Important collections related to Tampa’s immigrant communities and cigar industry came steadily during the 1980s and 90s, making Special Collections an important destination for researchers interested in the history of Florida.
In 1985, remarkable civil rights activists Robert and Helen Saunders donated the records of the local NAACP, adding momentum to SPC’s effort to preserve material related to the African American experience in Florida. Two years later, NCNB bank donated the Black Music Heritage Collection, a large assemblage of sheet music written and/or performed by African Americans, one of the biggest of its kind in the U.S.
As part of the Founder’s Day celebrations in 1991, USF’s administration held a ceremony to honor the recently-deceased former Governor LeRoy Collins in front of the Administration Building. South Palm Drive was renamed LeRoy Collins Boulevard, who was instrumental in bringing the idea of a state university in Tampa to fruition, and was a tireless supporter of public education. The Oracle wrote the following of the dedication: “USF will honor LeRoy Collins, truly a man of firm convictions. His name will forever mark the entrance of the institution his vision helped to create.” Collins’ political papers are transferred to Special Collections at the USF library.
In the early 2000s, Special Collections (and its sister department, the Florida Studies Center) led the effort to document and write the history of the university, which culminated in the publication of “The University of South Florida: The First Fifty Years, 1956-2006.” This effort led to a legacy of resources, including more than two hundred oral history interviews, years of archival research, and an annotated chronology for researchers.
In the 2010s, with the encouragement of Dean Todd Chavez, SPC began an effort to collect materials outside its typical collecting areas of history and the humanities. By the early 2020s, the area of emphasis is called “FLENH” (Florida Environment and Natural History), complete with a curator and the USF Herbarium, which was previously housed elsewhere on campus. Memoranda of Understanding were forged between the libraries and the Florida Audubon Society and the Florida Ornithological Association. The libraries’ digital collections inherited SORA, the Searchable Ornithological Research Archive from Cornell University. The massive and popular database has been a boon to the library’s digital activity. Years of collecting FLENH materials culminated in the transfer of USF’s Herbarium to the library in 2024.
The digital realm of the USF Libraries has expanded rapidly since the first digitization efforts began in 1995. Efforts ramped up heavily in the late 2010s. This work was buttressed when local photographer Chip Weiner provided a challenge grant to digitize the massive Gandy Photograph Collection. After a quick fundraising campaign, the digitization unit was able to outsource the scanning of well over 100,000 negatives, virtually doubling the online collections in a matter of months.
Years of effort and refinement have resulted in five collecting areas for Special Collections, including the University Archives, Florida Studies, children’s and young adult literature, the African-American experience, and LGBTQ+ studies.
