The Florida Ephemera Collection

The Art of Tourism

About the Collection: The Florida Ephemera Collection consists of some 8,000 items related to the promotion of Florida, its resort and agricultural industries, and Florida memorabilia. These items are individually numbered and stored in ring-binders under general subject headings. They range in date from 1854 to 1979. An in-house electronic database provides a preliminary search index (not yet accessible on the web). In addition to the items in the Ephemera Collection, the library has thousands of individually bound pamphlets, tourist guides, and tourist maps, as well as a postcard collection and a stereo-opticon collection (with viewer).; The Ephemera Collection is a wonderful source of Florida-theme artwork for book illustrations. The personnel at the Department of Special Collections are happy to assist in the selection and reproduction of images. Items from the collection have appeared in the following books: Come on Down: Pitching Paradise During the Roaring '20s, Jeff LaHurd, Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation, Inc., 1995, and See the U.S.A., The Art of the American Travel Brochure, by John Margolis and Eric Baker, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000.; The collection is divided into the following categories: Cities, Geographic Arrangement (99 binders, 2502 items); Railroad, Hotel, Steamship and Bus Lines (including the Florida East Coast and Plant systems) (25 binders, 700 items); Brochures on Tourism, Immigration, and Agriculture (16 binders, 260 items); Guides, Maps, Photo-engraved and Lithographic Souvenir Booklets, Postcards, Letters (15 binders, 950 items); Hotels and Motels, Geographically Arranged (9 binders, 823 items); Attractions, Geographically Arranged (17 binders, 1789 items); Illustrated Adventure Stories (1 binder, 13 items); Government Documents and Miscellaneous Materials (10 binders, no count).

Examples from the Collection: The following links provide a few examples of the types of items contained in the collection. Emphasis is on 19th- and early 20th-century brochures and engravings, although the collection also includes thousands of tourist attraction brochures from the 1940s through 1970s.

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Cities and Towns of the Florida Boom
Miami (# 1110)	1925	Cover
St. Petersburg (# 2084)	1919	Cover
St. Petersburg (# 2384)	1919	Front
St. Petersburg (Same)		Back
Tampa (# 2285)	1909	Cover
Jacksonville (# 751)	n.d.	Cover
St. Augustine (# 1859)	c. 1915	Cover
St. Augustine	1916	Cover
Kissimmee	n.d.	Cover
Lakeland (# 858)	1924	Cover
New Smyrna (# 1298)	l927	Cover
Sanford (# 2267)	1925	Cover
Winter Park (# 2436)	l924	Cover
Eustis (# 435)	c. 1925	Cover
Penny Farms (# 1515)	c. 1927	Cover
Gardendale (# 553)	c. 1925	Cover

Railroad Memorabilia
Florida East Coast Railway Guide	1910	Cover
Florida East Coast Railway and Hotels, with fold outs	1911	Cover
Plant System Guide to the South (# 4641)	1890s?	Cover
Gun and Rod, published by Plant System (# 4632)	1895	Cover
Plant System Brochures and Time Tables		Cover
Plant System Memorabilia		Items
Central Short Line to Florida (# 2641)	n.d.	Cover
Dixie Route to Florida (# 2574)	n.d.	Cover

Souvenir Albums, 19th Century
Palatka, St. Johns, & Ocklawaha, Witterman Bros., New York	1883	Cover
Same, Palatka on the St. Johns		Print
St. Augustine, Chas. F. Schneur, Agent, Mauch Chunk, Pa.	1881	Cover
Same, St. Augustine from Fort Marion		Print
Pensacola, Adolph Wittemann, New York (# 1520)	1885	Cover
Same, Pensacola Harbor		Print

Miscellaneous
TipTop Weekly adventure stories (# 4752)	1901	Cover
All-Sports Library adventure stories (# 4755)	1906	Cover
Bardell, Miniature Photo album of Miami (# 1170a)	1925	Photos
Bardell, Miniature Photo album of Orlando	1923	Photos
Jacksonville in Flames, An Artistic Description of a Gloomy Affair	c. 1901	Cover
Same, City Building and Market after the Fire		Photo
The Underground Wealth &c., of Polk and Desoto Counties	c. 1890	Cover
Florida Citrus Exchange citrus fruit pamphlet (# 3216)	1916	Cover
Florida and How to Get There (# 2646)	n.d.	Cover