Miami News Photograph Collection - 1896-1988

187.00 Linear Feet

The Miami News photographs document events, places, and people in Dade County and, to a less extent, Monroe County, Broward County, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the West Indies. Images that record the corporate history of the Miami News are also included.

The Miami News Collection contains three series: photographic prints, negatives, and other materials.

Series 1, photographic prints, contains three subseries:  (1) topical, (2) biographical, and (3) the Jay Spencer collection. Photographic prints in the topical and biographic subseries are organized in folders using headings created by the Miami News; the folders are arranged alphabetically.

Series 2, negatives, are mostly arranged by size, photographer and date, and retain their original order. Each envelope contains one photo shoot/assignment, and may contain one to 100 items.

They are then arranged in three subseries:  (1) 35mm negatives, 1973-1980; (2) 35mm negatives, 1978-1988; and (3) Our Sunday Portrait, various subjects and World War II in Miami area, 1941-1965.

The collection is open for research.

Permission from HistoriyMiami Archives staff required prior to reproduction of photographs in a publication. Please contact archives staff for more information.

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During the 1980s, the Miami News donated a number of negatives and prints to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. In 1989, after the Miami News had ceased publication, Cox Enterprises, the Miami News’ parent company, disposed of the paper’s assets. Through the efforts of Howard Kleinberg and David Kraslow, Cox Enterprises gave the historically important materials to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, Several smaller groups of photographic prints from the Miami News morgue have been donated by photographers and a historian who had borrowed them from the paper prior to 1989.

HASF staff selected the most significant photographic print files, about 25,000 out of 200,000 images. Selection criteria included: 1) images pertaining to Dade and Monroe counties, Bahamas, and the Caribbean; 2) preference for images by Miami News photographers, rather than wire service photos; and 3) files predating 1974 (images later than 1973 are in the negatives). Biographical files were selected using lists from several biographical directories as well as archivists’ knowledge of state and local history. A number of historically significant biographical files were probably missed, as time for selection of files was limited. After HASF’s initial selection of photographic prints, the Palm Beach Post library added a number of images to their paper’s files. HASF staff then selected another group of prints, and integrated them into the collection. The remainder were then destroyed.

Related artifacts are in HistoryMiami's objects collection.

Additional photographic prints from the Miami News are in the Palm Beach Post library, West Palm Beach, Florida.

Other Information

Accessions:

1989-011

1995-277

1994-370

Finding Aid Authors: Rebecca A. Smith and archives staff.

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