We are always delighted to accept books or manuscripts that fulfill the library's mission:  to preserve and make available items that will contribute significantly to research in Florida history, that shed important light on regional or local history, and that chronicle major events.

For more than 50 years our library has been the fortunate beneficiary of many gifts and bequests from faculty, alumni, organizations, businesses, and individuals.

Writers, historians, and archaeologists who have used our library are generous in sending us copies of any books they produce, knowing that this helps to keep the collections current and comprehensive.

Our holdings in political manuscripts continue to expand through gifts from prominent Florida politicians and their families.  These donations of large collections are matched in quality, if not in size, by the many small collections-of family correspondence, diaries, and photographs-that have come to us from people in Florida and throughout the nation.

If you have books, family papers, or photographs that you think would make an addition to the library, please contact one of the collection curators.  The principal contact for Florida history is:
 
 

Examples of Donations:
 

The William and Sue Goza Collection
2,500 volumes.  The Gozas were long-time supporters of the university, and their donation of their Floridiana library brought into our collection a wealth of rare and unique items.  In addition to many beautiful first-edition and early imprints of such Florida classics as McCall's Letters from the Frontier, Bartram's Travels, Brinton's Guidebook, and Williams' The Territory of Florida, we received archaeological reports by C.B. Moore, photographs of St. Augustine in 1888, and hundreds of works in Florida literature, natural history, and early exploration.
 

The 1788 Rocque map of St. Augustine
We were especially thrilled to obtain this full-size color facsimile of one of St. Augustine's most important colonial plat maps.  Donated by the Bureau of Land Management and the P.G.A./World Golf Village, copies of this map now reside at the University of Florida, at the St. Augustine Historical Society, and with the City of St. Augustine.
 

Letters of Robert Moffatt Fleming
Fleming was a Scots immigrant to Virginia who became a major investor and engineer in the field of coal mining.  In 1920 he came to Florida for his health and wrote to his wife about his impressions of the state.  Although the originals of the letters are now apparently lost, his descendants gave the library a set of typescripts that have been kept in the family for many years.  Donated by Ann C. Fleming and Mrs. Robert Fleming.

The Papers of Reuben Charles
This collection contains correspondence, bills of sale, merchandise lists and other information documenting the management of Moses E. Levy's Pilgrimage Plantation in Alachua County between 1824 and 1826.   Reuben Charles acted as Levy's manager.  Letters refer to planting and construction at the plantation and also contain references to members of the Levy family.  The collection is an important complement to the David Levy Yulee Papers held by the library. Donated April 3, 1998, by David S. Coleman, Wade H. Coleman, and David L. Girardin in memory of Virginia Shaw Girardin and Meta Shaw Coleman.
 

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