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News and Announcements

Jim Haskins Exhibit Opens in Special Collections Exhibit Gallery

The exhibit Jim Haskins: The Professor, the Writer, and the Activist is open in the University of Florida Special Collections Exhibit Gallery on the second floor of Smathers Library through March 15, 2008. Haskins (1941-2005) was a University of Florida English professor and prolific author. Included in the exhibit are all of his 150 books along with notes, awards and personal items from the collections of the George A. Smathers Libraries. Haskins’ books covered numerous diverse subjects. Many of his books are non-fiction works for children but he also put African American history and experiences into his novels. The languages he wrote in were also diverse, from black dialect to Italian and Spanish. Haskins was one of the founders of African-American studies at UF and he commuted between New York and Gainesville. Haskins alternated between his roles as a professor, a scholar, a writer, an activist and an inspiration to other young African American students but through it all it was said that he always maintained a dignity and quiet intelligence which was noted and respected by those who knew him.

New Exhibition Examines the Ongoing Presence of Alice in Wonderland in American Culture

The Afterlife of Alice in Wonderland is a colorful new exhibition that traces the continued presence of the text and images of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in American culture, by presenting a variety of editions, illustrators, media and artifacts, and showcasing the 1969 portfolio edition illustrated by Salvador Dali. The exhibition opens October 15th in Smathers Library (East) in the second floor exhibit gallery. The exhibit is open daily Monday through Friday, and runs through December 15. A Tea Party Reception and Program will be held Wednesday, November 7, 3:30-5:00 p.m. in Smathers Library, Room 1A on the first floor. The reception is free and open to the public, and it is rumored that Alice and the White Rabbit will be on the Plaza of the Americas prior to the tea party reception. The exhibition web site features an overview of the exhibition, a biography of Carroll, and a discussion of the numerous editions and adaptations. The web site also provides a link to the Alice digital collection, part of the University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC). Several editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and similar works are available online.

Welcome Seth Jerchower, New Head of Price Library

We are pleased to announce that Seth Jerchower started as the new Head of the Price Library of Judaica in August 2007. In addition to collection development responsibilities and overall management of the Price Library, Seth will work closely with faculty and students, particularly those affiliated with the Center for Jewish Studies, to satisfy their research and teaching needs. Seth has many years of experience in Judaic studies librarianship, having served recently as Judaic Research and Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania and as Public Services Librarian at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. He replaces Robert Singerman, who retired in Summer 2006 after 27 years with the Libraries.

New Interim Chair

Dr. Jim Cusick became the new Interim Chair for the Department in July 2007. He will continue to perform his duties as Curator of the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History. He replaces Rita Smith, who had served as Interim Chair since July 2006, and who will resume her responsibilities as the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Librarian.

Baldwin Library Receives Large Donation from Local Collector

Dr. Robert Egolf of Ocala has donated more than 2,800 children's books to the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature. The collection spans the the years 1807-2003, and includes many first editions and all of the prestigious Caldecott Medal winners. The donation brings the total volumes of the Baldwin Library to approximately 103,000. A reception was held Monday, March 5, to commemorate the gift.

New Exhibit Honors Prominent African-American Educator

A new exhibition in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections highlights the extraordinary achievements of a leading African-American educator in Gainesville. The Legacy of A. Quinn Jones, Sr.: "All Negro Children Can Learn" will be on display in the Smathers Library Exhibit Gallery until early March. The career of A. Quinn Jones, Sr. spanned over 42 years as teacher and principal of Alachua County's most important African American school, Lincoln High School. The current exhibition honors the many achievements and lasting legacy of Professor Jones. An opening reception planned for Sunday, January 21, at 4:30 p.m. will be attended by members of the Jones family, former students, fellow educators, and members of the Gainesville community.

Staff Changes Around the Department

Robert Shaddy, chair of the department for the past four years, has accepted a position as Chief Librarian at Queens College (City University of New York). Best of luck to Robert! Rita Smith, librarian for the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, will serve as interim chair for the department starting in July. Also, we welcome Yael Herbsman as interim head of the Price Library following the retirement of former Judaica librarian, Robert Singerman (see announcement below). Yael will oversee the transfer of the Price Library from the Education Library to its new home in the renovated Library West.

Judaica librarian Robert Singerman retires

After 27 years with the University of Florida, Judaica librarian and bibliographer Robert Singerman retires in June 2006. Robert came to UF in 1979 from the world-renowned Klau Library at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Two years later, the Price Library of Judaica was formally established here on campus, and Robert began his tenure as its first librarian - the only librarian to date. Over the span of his career, he was instrumental in significantly increasing the size of the Judiaca collection from 24,000 volumes to over 85,000 cataloged volumes. Today, the Price Library is without peer in the southeastern United States, and has taken its place alongside other well-respected and mature Judaica collections in the United States. For his outstanding achievements, Robert has been awarded Faculty Emeritus status following his retirement.

To learn more about his career here at UF, please read Robert's own reminiscences, entitled "Not the Work of a Day."

Caribbean holdings exhibited at Historical Museum of Southern Florida

An exhibition of highlights from the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries' Caribbean archival and library materials opened February 24 at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida in Miami. The exhibition, Caribbean Collage: Archival Collections and the Construction of History, spans five centuries of Caribbean history and focuses on the British West Indies, Haiti and Cuba from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections and the Map and Imagery Library. Materials for the exhibit were selected from the holdings of the Latin American Collection, Special Collections, and the Map and Imagery Library. Visit For a news release on the exhibition, visit http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/news2/Caribbean_Coll.html. For more information about the Caribbean Collage exhibition, visit www.historical-museum.org. The exhibition runs through June 4, 2006.

New British Women Writers Exhibit

(Re)Collecting British Women Writers: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers in Special Collections has opened in the Special and Area Studies exhibit gallery. The eight exhibit cases focus on the following themes: children's books, illustrated texts, science and nature, poems and letters, novels, women and girls, biography and Mary, Queen of Scots. The exhibit, prepared by Cathlena Martin, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English, opens in conjunction with the fourteenth annual British Women Writers Conference, March 23-26, at the University of Florida. It is open through May 21, 2006.

The Legacy of Albert L. Cunningham Sr.

Albert L. Cunningham Sr., co-founder of Cunningham's Funeral Home in Ocala, died February 13 at the age of 82. The papers of Cunningham and the records of the Cunningham's Funeral Home, which document the largest minority-owned business in Marion County, were acquired by the Libraries in 2002. He and his brother James founded the funeral home in 1955. As morticians, they played a prominent leadership role in the African American community - like African American morticians throughout the South - in terms of providing a headquarters for political activities; handling banking needs for the community; and facilitating other necessary financial, cultural, and social transactions that required interaction among the segregated components of the South. The collection, which currently is unavailable while it is arranged and preserved, includes burial records, photographs, financial transactions, oral histories, maps, correspondence related to a number of topics such as politics, fashion, and others aspects of life in Florida.

Remarks made by John Ingram, Deputy Director for the Libraries, on the funeral for Albert L. Cunningham, Sr. are available here.

Departmental Highlights for 2005

The Department of Special and Area Studies Collections reports considerable activity and accomplishments during the past year, in the areas of acquisitions and collection development; processing and description; bibliographic instruction and teaching; outreach and public programs; and professional development and research activities. A full summary of these activities is available online in a 2005 Highlights document (in PDF format - requires Adobe Acrobat to view).

Maps of Africa: A Celebration of the 500,000th and 500,001st maps

On Wednesday, November 30, from 11:00 a.m. until noon, there will be a commemorative celebration in the Map & Imagery Library for the addition of the 500,000th and 500,001st maps. The 500,000th map is "Africae described, the manners of their Habits, and Buildings," by John Speed, 1631-32. It is the first English map of Africa. The 500,001st map is "Western side of Africa: Typus orarum maritimarum Guinae, Manicongo, & Angolae ultra" by Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Amsterdam, 1596. Both maps are considered cornerstones for any collection of rare African maps. The two maps, along with other rare and modern African maps, will be on display in the Map & Imagery Library from November 30 through December 7, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Map & Imagery Library and the Africana Collection provided funding, and generous assistance was provided by Elizabeth Harrer in memory of her son Thomas and the Dr. Madelyn M. Lockhart Book Fund in African Studies.

New Papers Related to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Available

The department recently acquired and made available an accession of papers related to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings from the offices of Philip S. May, Sr., Rawlings' friend and attorney. This collection was generously donated by Phil May, Jr., of Jacksonville. The papers include legal records and correspondence regarding the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings estate. Probate documents, estate inventories and tax returns are represented in the legal documents. The correspondence is primarily with the executor of the estate, Rawlings' second husband, Norton Baskin. Other correspondents include Rawlings' other beneficiaries, Arthur Kinnan (Rawlings' brother), the University of Florida Foundation, and Julia Scribner Bingham, her literary executor. A small number of documents not related to the Rawlings estate also were included in this accession. These include a selection of several dozen letters to and from Arthur Kinnan during Rawlings' lifetime, a folder of Brandt & Brandt correspondence, and a folder of materials relating to the Cason v. Baskin (Cross Creek) trial. These materials have been processed and incorporated into the existing Rawlings collections.