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Latin American

Collection




UNIVERSITY of
UF FLORIDA
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he University of Florida's Latin
American Collection is among the
largest and most distinguished collec-
tions of Latin American materials in the
United States and has been described as the
finest collection of Caribbeana in the world.
Because of Florida's colonial past, the
University of Florida has a long tradition of
Latin American studies, dating back to the
establishment of the university's Inter-
American Institute in 1930. The university's
George A. Smathers Libraries has supported
those efforts in the decades since.

In 1951, the Libraries accepted national
responsibility for collecting Caribbean and
West Indian material, aided by federal
support and private funds from the


Rockcfellcr. Ford, and Tinker Foundations.
Librarians in the 1950s and 1960s traveled
extensively acquiring and microfilming mate-
rials for the collection, including newspapers,
official gazettes and rare books from many
national archives. There is also deep coverage
of Bri.il. Mexico and Central America,
Andean nations and the Southern Cone.

Toda\, thcsie huldirin consist ,of nmor than
400,00(11 book,. 1.1 li active s.ral title,, and
almost 5 1,101.1 mnicrootrms; they c institute the
core ot the Library's extensive Latin American
resources. ('Cr rent acquisitions, rcmlJin actitc
and c~ ntnuLe to support instruction ,,and
research b\ studeiit, faculty and outsh&-
researchier. Thcrc is ao al growing amount
of access to computer-based information.

While the Latin American Collection is the
main repository for humanities and social
sciences materials, researchers will find
notable Latin American technical and
scientific materials, particularly on tropical
agriculture and ecosystems, in the Marston
Science Library. Indeed, the Map and Imagery
Library, located on the first level of Marston
Science Library, holds one of the finest Latin
American map and atlas collections in the
country. Further, the Braga Brothers
Collection, one of the premier archival


sources on the development of the Cuban
sugar industry in the century before 1960,
is housed in the Department of Special
and Area Studies Collections; the
Rochambeau and Jeremie Papc rs, as well
as several other important manuscript
collections, are also located there. The P.K.
Yonge Library of Florida History, part of
the same department's collections, holds
more than two and a half million Spanish
colonial documents on microfilm relating
to Spanish Florida primarily gathered
from the Archivo General de Indias in
Seville and the archives of the Condes de
Revillagigedo. Other campus units of the
libraries, such as Art and Music, also hold
important resources.


Map of The Western Islands by R. Morden, c. 1700, from the Map
and Imagery Library.
















For more information on the Latin American
Collection contact:

Richard Phillips, head librarian
ricphil@mail.uflib.ufl.edu
University of Florida
George A. Smathers Libraries
Department of Special and Area Studies
Collections
400 Smathers Library (East)
PO Box 117007
Gainesville, FL 32611-7007
(352) 392-0360; Fax (352) 392-6550

Latin American Collection Web site:
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/lac/






U3V


UNIVERSITY of
UFIFLORIDA


An equal opportunity institution


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