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This collection contains records and materials produced by the South Florida Folklife Center (SFFC) from 1985 to the present. Since 1985, the SFFC has conducted major fieldwork surveys and produced exhibitions and public programming. The materials from these major projects are organized and listed by project in separate collections. The records included in this collection may or may not be related to those major projects. The majority of these records pertain to the SFFC’s activities outside of these initiatives.

Materials include: copies of research field notes and information sheets on informants; photographic prints, as well as 35mm negatives, slides, and contact sheets; audiocassette tape recordings; and visual materials.

Additional digital formats of audio, video, and image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series contains materials related to a traveling exhibition—“The Scholar and the Collector: Fernando Ortiz, Los Instrumentos de la Música Afrocubana, and the Howard Collection of Percussion Instruments”—displayed at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) in 2000 in collaboration with InterAmericas (Society of Arts and Letter of the Americas), the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), and the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition focused on the relationship between Fernando Ortiz’s music scholarship and the musical instrument collection of the Joseph H. Howard family, both of which are concerned with the relationships between African musical traditions and related traditions in the Americas, particularly African, Cuban, and Haitian percussion traditions. Materials include: an exhibition catalog containing photographs and essays; audiocassette tape recordings of audio components of the exhibition, including musical demonstrations and a 1965 interview with Fernando Ortiz; videocassette tape and audio compact disc (CD) recordings of lectures by Fernando Ortiz, interviews with Victoria Howard and María Fernanda Ortiz Herrera, and marketing video for the exhibition in VHS and VHS-C formats.

Additional digital formats of audio, image, and project report files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents a research project and exhibition on Little Haiti’s distinctive and vibrant street art tradition which thrived in Little Haiti during the 1980s. As its name suggests, the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami is a center for Haitian social and cultural life. In order to document the storefront painted murals and signs that characterize the Little Haiti business district and the artists who create them, the Folklife Center at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) conducted field work for “Sign Art in Little Haiti” during 1988 and 1989, then created an exhibit called “Sign of the Times: Folk Art in Miami's Little Haiti,” which was on display February 2-28, 1990. While several of the artists remain anonymous, featured artists include: Rodrigue Gilbert and Serge Toussaint. Materials include: an essay on the project; photographic prints, 35mm slides, and contact sheets, Michele Edleson and Tina Bucuvalas.

Additional digital formats of image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents a research project to assess the state of traditional arts in Afro-Caribbean, African-American, and African communities in South Florida at the end of the 1980s. The project was designed and carried out by Brent Cantrell, Folklife Program Coordinator and Festival Coordinator at the Historical Association of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum). Many early settlers of African descent came to South Florida from the Bahamas and the American South to trade or to work on the railroads in the early 1900s, and a significant influx of immigrants of African descent from Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, and other Caribbean nations arrived in South Florida throughout the mid- and late-20th century; however, the proportion of South Floridians of African descent to the general population, however, decreased in the latter part of the 20th century. The “Traditional Arts of the African Diaspora” project identified artists in the Metro-Dade area and presented them in a variety of festival formats, both locally and elsewhere in Florida. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Folk Arts Program, the Metro-Dade Cultural Affairs Council, and the Florida Department of State’s Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs provided support for the project which produced a 24-page pamphlet on the project edited by researchers Tina Bucuvalas and Brent Cantrell. Materials include: notebook of field notes, business cards, programs, and contact information; edited pamphlet of photographs and essays published in 1990; photographic contact sheets, 35mm slides and negatives; and audiocassette tape recordings of interviews and musical performances.

Additional digital formats of audio and image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents three folklife festivals celebrated in Miami’s Cultural Center Plaza between 1986 and 1988. The Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum), the Dade County Council of Arts and Sciences, and the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, and the Florida Arts Council staged the first festival—“The South Florida Folklife Festival”—was held on March 22-23, 1986. Showcasing more than 30 folk artists and representing a broad cross-section of ethnic groups in Dade County, the festival featured food, music, and craft demonstrations; a majority of these artists were later invited to participate in the 34th Annual Florida Folklife Festival near White Springs (HMF9003). The second festival—“Traditions: The South Florida Folklife Festival”—was held March 28-29, 1987 and featured foodways, crafts, a musical main stage, a workshop stage, and vendors. Between April and August of 1987, Tina Bucuvalas—then Folklife Curator for the Folklife Center of the Historical Association of Southern Florida—conducted fieldwork for the third festival, which focused on Latin American and Caribbean music in southeast Florida; Florida State University ethnomusicologist Dale Olsen assisted in field research, evaluated musical groups, and wrote a short essay on Latin American and Caribbean music for publication in the festival guide. Built on this research, the third festival—“Traditions: A Celebration of Latin and Caribbean Music”—took place on April 23-25, 1988, featuring Student Day outreach activities with local public schools. Materials include: copies of research field notes and information sheets on informants; photographic prints, as well as 35mm negatives, slides, and contact sheets; audiocassette tape recordings; and a videocassette recording of a WLRN television clip featuring festival artists.

Additional digital formats of audio, video, and image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

This series documents Tropical Traditions: The Folklife of Southeast Florida (also known as the South Florida Folk Arts Project), a research project by The Historical Association of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) conducted between 1988 and 1991 consisted of fieldwork which was supported by a grant from the Florida Endowment for the Humanities and culminated in the first major museum exhibit on the folklife of southeast Florida. Public programs included demonstrations, performances, and lectures by artists and experts showcasing a variety of traditions—musical performance and instrument making, food, needle arts, quilts, games, knots, furniture, sponge cutting, fishing, woodcarving, beadwork, alligator wrestling, cigar making, and dance. The exhibit explored the relationship between nature and folklife, analyzing ways in which southeast Florida folklife is rooted in both the environment and cultural heritage of the region. The exhibit also endeavored to dispel misconceptions about folklife in general and to foster public understanding and appreciation for the area’s unique folklife. Materials include: grant applications, budgets, and reports; information sheets, research articles, notes, and ephemera; exhibit planning and implementation documents; promotional publications for the exhibit; meeting notes, memoranda, and correspondence; photographic images (most by Michele Edelson) include prints, 35mm slides, and contact sheets.

Additional digital formats of image files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

The Florida Folklife Program sought to explore Miami’s inner world thirty years ago with the first Miami-Dade folklife survey conducted for the 1986 Florida Folk Festival. The survey highlighted Miami’s traditional culture and provided the impetus for the creation of the South Florida Folklife Center at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, now HistoryMiami Museum. In 2016, the Florida Folklife Program partnered with the now three-decades-old HistoryMiami South Florida Folklife Center to reexamine Miami’s folk traditions and paint a new portrait of the city by exploring the question, “What makes Miami, Miami?” Fieldwork was conducted by HistoryMiami Museum’s Folklife Specialist, Vanessa Navarro, and Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and former staff Folklorist, Michael Knoll. The project was overseen by the Florida Folklife Program’s State Folklorist, Amanda Hardeman.

This field research project focused on customs and practices that are unique to Miami, particularly the sayings, occupations, musical styles, dance forms, beliefs, rituals, celebrations, and foodways that are quintessentially “Miami.” The findings of this study informed the 2016 Florida Folk Festival, and the artists and presenters chosen for the program reflect a sampling of the components that make Miami the unique and vibrant city it is.

This collection consists of born digital materials. Please contact staff ahead of your visit to access these materials.

This collection consists of copies of Federal Writers’ Projects and Works Progress Administration (WPA) reports on Cuban folk culture in Jacksonville, Tampa, Ybor City, Key West, and other “odd pockets” in Florida during the early 20th century. The original type-written documents are stored the collections of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/). The reports include studies of the Circulo Cubano, the Centro Asturiano, the Centro Español, the Chinese Charade, Voodooism, the Nanigo Cult, Witchcraft, the Church, as well as Social Life and Education of Cuban and Spanish communities. Additionally, transcriptions of folktales, superstitions, and numerous life histories are included. Materials include: photocopies of typewritten transcriptions, reports, essays, and ephemera.

This series consists of documents related to a 1989 conference—titled “WPA: In the Nick of Time”—on the Florida Folklife Program, a field research project conducted by the Works Projects Administration (WPA) between 1937 and 1942. The original WPA materials, which are archived in the Library of Congress and accessible online (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida/), combine sound recordings and manuscript materials from four discrete archival collections made by WPA workers from the Joint Committee on Folk Arts, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Music Project. This online presentation provides access to 376 sound recordings and 106 accompanying materials, including recording logs, transcripts, correspondence between Florida WPA workers and Library of Congress personnel, and a proposal to survey Florida folklore by Zora Neale Hurston. An essay by Stetson Kennedy, who worked with Hurston and other WPA collectors, reflects on the labor and the legacy of the WPA in Florida, and an extensive bibliography and list of related Web sites add further context about the New Deal era and Florida culture. The original WPA recordings—the sound quality of which is sometimes poor—document folktales, life histories, beliefs, and sacred and secular music of African American, Anglo-American, Arabic, Bahamian, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, Slovak, and Syrian cultures and communities throughout Florida. It features sound recordings in many languages, includes blues and work songs from menhaden fishing boats, railroad gangs, and turpentine camps; children's songs, dance music, and religious music. Materials include: documents related to the 1989 conference, such as depositors’ agreements; copies of original WPA documents; and audiocassette tape recordings of the 1989 conference featuring Ann Banks, Dale Olson, Stetson Kennedy, Alan Jabbour, and Alan Lomax.

This series documents an extensive research field research project on the cultural traditions of South Americans in the Miami metropolitan area. Though Miami’s South American community grew rapidly between the 1980s and the 2000s, their expressive traditions had previously been the subject of relatively little documentary work. Fieldwork conducted by the Museum during 2001 and 2002 by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) examined three of the largest South American groups in Miami: Colombians, Venezuelans, and Peruvians, focusing on music, which proved to be the most public and symbolically charged form of expression in all three communities. Musical genres documented include bambucos, música llanera, vallenato, cumbia, papayera, joropos, música andina, música criolla, parranda, gaita. Researchers Martha Ellen Davis, Nathalia Franco, and Dorian Bermudez recorded extensive commentary on relationships between musical traditions and the experience of migration. The project was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Materials include: photographic images; audiocassette tape recordings of musical performances and interviews; and videocassette tape recordings of musical performances. Note: this series includes recordings for which HistoryMiami Museum does not hold copyright.

Additional digital formats of audio files available: Records were digitized 2015 – 2016. Users must contact staff ahead of visit for access.

About Folklife

Folklife is traditional knowledge that is passed from person to person. This intimate type of learning takes place outside of formal institutions as a result of participation in folk groups such as families, ethnic, religious, regional, or occupational groups. Folklife is the manifestation of traditional knowledge and includes such diverse categories as belief, custom, art, craft, music, foodways, dance, drama, play, occupational or technical skill, architecture, and oral literature. South Florida folklife consists of the entire, complex body of traditions practiced by its residents, irrespective of whether they have lived here for months or decades.

About the South Florida Folklife Center

The South Florida Folklife Center’s folklife fieldwork projects and related efforts produce audio and video recordings, images, field notes, and associated materials. These items have been made available to the public at HistoryMiami's Archives and Research Center. The Center also collects three-dimensional folklife objects, which are added to HistoryMiami's collection of museum artifacts.

Since its founding The South Florida Folklife Center has produced exhibitions, educational programs, festivals, concerts, web content, publications, and other events and materials. Through these undertakings, the Center strives to educate the public about the region's diverse peoples, cultures, and traditions. In an effort to encourage the continuity of the area's folk culture, the South Florida Folklife Center also provides support services to local traditional artists and cultural organizations.  Materials from these various activities are included in the folklife collection.

Items within the collection date from 1985 to the present and future additions to the collection are expected.

An artificial collection of photographic prints relating to the history of the Miami region and South Florida, collected by the archives from numerous sources from 1940 to the present.

Geographic headings include the Bahamas, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Cuba, Miami-Dade County, the Everglades region, Florida Keys, Hialeah, Key West, Miami, Miami Beach, etc.

Topical headings include agriculture (comptie starch, sugar, etc.), businesses and organizations (Burdines, etc.), ethnic groups (African Americans, Cubans, Haitians, Jews, Seminoles, etc.), hurricanes, sports (baseball, football, fishing, horse racing, j'ai alai, polo, sailing, etc.), transportation (aviation, automobiles, bridges, causeways, railroads, ships and boats, Tamiami Trail, etc.), tourism (attractions, alligators, etc.), and wars (Seminole, Spanish-American, world wars, etc.).

Biographical files include Brickell family, John C. Gifford (botanist), Carl Fisher (developer and entrepreneur), Oliver Griswold, James Franklin Jaudon (developer), George Merrick (developer), Arva Moore Parks (collector and historian), Thelma Peters (collector and historian), Everest and John Sewell (mayors and businessmen), Julia Tuttle, Karl Voelter (aviator), and Hamilton Wright (publicity photographer).

Artifical collection of yearbooks from South Florida private and public schools. Includes yearbooks from other Florida locations.

Series names the school, followed by the yearbook title, and year(s) within HMM's holdings.

Mays High School yearbook, 1966 housed under HMA0107:Wesley Dallas yearbook and album.

The bulk of the collection consists of certificates from the Treasury Department pertaining to mergers, acquisitions, and authorization to conduct banking activities, etc. Minutes, some early records and newsletters of First National Bank of Miami are also included.

Views of natural areas at Key Largo, Biscayne Canal, Linton, Stranahan Camp (Ft. Lauderdale), Alligator Creek (near Punta Gorda), Miami, Cutler, Key West, Coconut Grove, and Everglades. Includes natural areas, reclamation of land, and Tropical Laboratory (possibly the Dade County Agricultural Experiment Station).

Up to four photographs are mounted on heavy album paper. Beneath each photograph the photographers attached a photo number and caption, which are listed in the container list.