About Manuscript & Photo Collections

Manuscript Finding Aids and Indexes

Manuscripts

The Manuscript Collections

Finding aids are the 'table of contents' to our manuscripts and records. See what we have on Florida politics, writers and naturalists, civil rights, state history, and much more.

Photographic Collections (General)

Most of the photographs in the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History are part of named collections or else are part of our general photograph and photo albums collections. If collections have been digitized and placed online in the University of Florida Digital Collections, their photographic series have been included with them. There is no overall guide to what we hold in photographs and it is best to confer with collection managers when seeking to work with photographs. The University Archives and other Special Collections such as the literary manuscripts and Popular Culture also have extensive archives of photographs.

Photographic Series about the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians

Five collections contain photographs of life among the Seminole and Miccosukee. These are the Louis Capron Papers, the Albert DeVane Papers, the John Goggin Papers, the R.T. King Slide Collection, and the Rev. Alexander Linn Collection. Most are not online. The Linn Collection, which consists of hand-colored glass lantern slides, has been digitized and placed in the University of Florida Digital Collections for ease of viewing and to reduce handling of the original glass plates. To provide some remote access to the other collections, we have created a name index for individuals who could be identified in photos (see below)

Louis Bishop Capron Papers

A significant portion of the collection is comprised of portraits and group shots of Seminole men, women, and children (1920s to 1970s). People featured in the photographs include the Tommie family, Toby Jones’ family, John Osceola’s family, the Motlow family, Dr. Tiger, and others. 

Albert DeVane Papers

The DeVane Collection can be divided into four categories: writings by DeVane, photographs of the aftermath of Hurricane Donna (1960), photographs of construction at the Brighton Reservation, and general photographs of Seminole Indian culture. 

John M. Goggin Papers

The papers of the anthropologist and archaeologist John M. Goggin contain sections of his ethnological work among the Seminole, including the photographs in Box 6 and his notes in Boxes 17 and 18.

Name Index to the Capron, DeVane and Goggin Collections

In 2024 our summer intern Myla Wasser created an index of names to people who could be identified in our various photographic collections of the Seminole and Miccosukee. Her index covers some 120 folders of photographs an identifies 300 individuals. For each folder, the index lists the collection and box number where you can find the folder and presents what information we have about the people in the photographs (their names and sometimes clan affiliation). Dates and places are also identified where possible.

The Glass Lantern Slides of the Linn Collection

Coffee Gopher on horseback

Reverend Alexander Linn Lantern Slides of the Seminoles

Converted to digital format with many showing added color tint. At left, Coffee Gopher on horseback.