RESEARCH VISIT BY TWO FIU GRADUATE STUDENTS RESEARCHERS

This Thursday two Florida International University students taking the same Ethnohistorical Methods class but working on very different projects came to our rare books and special collections library to gather information and do some research. This course benefitted from a Mellon grant which allowed the professor to integrate museum objects and artifacts into the curriculum. One of the goals of the course is to train students to make use of primary source materials for their research projects, but also to encourage them to investigate how and why such archives and collections were amassed by conducting interviews (where possible) with the persons responsible for gathering the materials.

Charles Heck arrived at the library with an interest in social and environmental considerations in the development of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, as well as its notorious favelas. While our own collection trails off pretty quickly in the post-war period, we were able to direct the student to a large collection of architecture slides taken by one of the Wolfsonian’s former fellows, Eric Dluhosch. Professor Dluhosch, who retired a few years ago from teaching at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, traveled extensively across the globe and spent time in Brazil at architecture conferences that investigated various social housing experiments and documented the development of slums in that and other Latin American countries. His large collection of architectural slides was donated to Florida International University some years ago and is in the process of being digitized for use by the university’s School of Architecture. The student may have the opportunity to meet with and interview Dr. Dluhosch directly as he is escaping the snowiest and the coldest of the winter months down here in sunny Miami Beach. Of course, there were also items in our own collection that addressed some of the student’s research concerns as well including the brochure pictured above.

Later that afternoon, Professor Dennis Wiedman directed another of his students, Benjamin Augustyn, to our library to discover what materials might be available for researching his topic of colonial tourism. While the student had originally been focused on some of the colorful travel posters of the interwar period, (of which there are many in our museum), he soon learned that there was a wealth of related materials in other formats (brochures, advertisements, menus, postcards) available for direct consultation in our library, or else easily viewed on the internet via our web OPAC and virtual library displays: ( http://207.67.203.78/W10054 ; http://www.librarydisplays.wolfsonian.org ) As the Wolfsonian founder, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. happened to be in town, we were also able to set up an interview with the original collector of the materials. Here are a few samples of some of the colonial tourist trade materials to be found in our rare books library.

WOLFSONIAN TOUR BY HISPANICS IN PHILANTHROPY

Last evening museum founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. was on hand to conduct a tour arranged by Cristina Eguizabal of FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center for fifteen visitors from foundations that fund Hispanic organizations. The rare books and special collections library was one of the first stops on the tour, and the participants appeared to relish the opportunity to see some of our rare Latin American and Caribbean materials laid out on the front table of the reading room.

The group responded with enthusiasm to the display of Latin American treats which included: rare books from Mexico; magazines and other printed materials from Argentina; a city planning book for Rio de Janeiro and some oversized commercial labels from Brazil; some illustrated sheet music covers, two large posters from pre-Castro Cuba, and a run of the periodical, Social with cover designs by Conrado Massaguer.

Although our library holdings are not as strong as we would like them to be with regard to materials from the West Indies and the Caribbean, we did have a few gems laid out for the group to see. Among the items were some beautifully illustrated cruise ship brochures, and—with Haiti figuring some prominently in the news owing to the tragic earthquake there—a novel set during the tumultuous years of the Haitian Revolution entitled Black Majesty, written by John Vandercook with illustrations by Mahlon Blaine. Puerto Rico was represented as well in the American Guide Series' Guide to the Island of Boriquén. The book was compiled and written by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration in cooperation with the Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration to document the Roosevelt Administration's efforts to rebuild the economy, put people back to work, and stimulate interest in tourism during the Great Depression.

We are still “beefing up” our Latin American holdings. Persons interested in gifting materials in keeping with the Wolfsonian’s collection interests are encouraged to submit in writing any offers. Emails or letters should provide a full description of the items intended for donation (including an assessment of condition) and provide an image of the same prior to sending the actual item in question.