Digital Collections Center at FIU Libraries

Digital Collections Center at FIU Libraries The Digital Collections Center hosts unique collections of cultural, historical, scholarly, educatio

Part of Florida International University Libraries – https://library.fiu.edu/

Digital Collections - http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/
The goal of the Digital Collections Center is to build online collections of enduring value for the university and broader patron community by identifying, digitizing, and preserving information resources of scholarly, educational, and civic interest. Collections

include: The Miami Metropolitan Archive, Everglades Digital Library, Mile Markers, Coral Gables Memory, Tequesta Online, the Digital Library of the Caribbean, and many more. The Center’s digital collections focus on local and regional materials of historical, scientific, cultural, and educational importance. FIU Libraries’ digital preservation program adheres to international standards and best practices, documenting technical, administrative, preservation, and rights management metadata, along with the archival digital files, which are deposited in the Florida Digital Archive. Institutional Repository - http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/
The IR, FIU Digital Commons, is a repository for capturing, archiving, and disseminating the research, creative, and scholarly output of the Florida International University community. The Digital Collections Center works with departments, centers, and individual faculty to select, submit, manage, and preserve digital content in FIU Digital Commons. This includes technical reports, pre-publications, research papers, and presentations. Digital Commons offers a suite of services including FIU branded faculty webpage hosting (Selected Works), journal hosting and publishing services, collection building, as well as conference and event management and promotion. Accessing the Collections
The majority of the content served by the FIU Digital Collections Center is free and open to the public. The center will be launching a copyright and intellectual property website in the coming months in order to provide information to the university community about user and author rights as well as FIU policies related to digital collections. Disclaimer
Posts made by anyone other than the official "Digital Collections Center at FIU Libraries” do not necessarily reflect the views of the Digital Collections Center, nor Florida International University.

A fisherman couldn't wait. On September 9, 1925, the Boynton Inlet was still a construction site, but that didn't stop t...
09/09/2026

A fisherman couldn't wait. On September 9, 1925, the Boynton Inlet was still a construction site, but that didn't stop this angler from walking to the end of a half-built jetty and casting a line into the Atlantic.

The inlet (officially the South Lake Worth Inlet) was conceived in 1923 as a way to freshen the stagnant south end of Lake Worth and open the lagoon to sport fishing. Riddle Engineering Company of West Palm Beach directed the work, and their solid concrete jetties proved sturdier than they look here: they rode out two hurricanes in 1926 without damage. The ocean finally broke through in March 1927, when spectators gathered late at night to watch the first Atlantic water flow into the lake by searchlight.

This photograph by Ray B. Dame comes from the Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives, available through FIU's dPanther digital repository: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/17595

Want to learn more? The Boynton Beach Historical Society has the full story of the inlet, including the 1927 Palm Beach Post article announcing its opening: https://www.boyntonhistory.org/the-south-lake-worth-boynton-inlet-history/

09/03/2026

Before the Biltmore was a hotel (again), it was a hospital, and the hospital had a bowling alley! In this photo, patients at Pratt General Hospital in Coral Gables line up a shot on lanes built for recovering World War II servicemen.

Those lanes had a job to do. Army hospitals of the era built bowling into their "reconditioning" programs, prescribing it for both the physical and mental recovery of wounded soldiers as part of their physical and mental recovery.

This image comes from the City of Coral Gables Historical Resources Department's Coral Gables Memory collection, hosted in FIU Libraries' dPanther repository: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/3039

City of Coral Gables - Government Biltmore Hotel Miami Coral Gables

Say "August 24, 1992" to anyone who was in South Florida at the time, and they can tell you exactly where they were that...
08/24/2026

Say "August 24, 1992" to anyone who was in South Florida at the time, and they can tell you exactly where they were that night. Thirty-four years ago today, Hurricane Andrew came ashore near Homestead as a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds around 165 mph and gusts that outran the instruments meant to measure them.

Country Walk, a subdivision in southwest Miami-Dade, became one of the storm's most recognizable casualties: nearly every home there was destroyed, and the neighborhood's name became shorthand for the building code failures Andrew exposed. Miami Herald photographer Tim Chapman took this aerial view of one of those houses about a week after landfall, roof peeled open and walls scattered across the yard.

The photo is part of the Tim Chapman Collection at Museum of Miami, hosted in FIU's dPanther digital archive: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/12102

"Everything you've always wanted to know about FIU but were afraid to ask." That was the title of the booklet the Divisi...
08/24/2026

"Everything you've always wanted to know about FIU but were afraid to ask." That was the title of the booklet the Division of Student Services handed to FIU's first students in the fall of 1972, when the campus consisted of Primera Casa, one modular building, and a row of faculty trailers.

Some things haven't changed in 50-plus years. The staff directory on page 3 lists President Charles Perry in Room 529A, extension 2111. Today the main line to the FIU President's office is still (305) 348-2111. Where did your department get its start?

Happy first day of the fall semester, Panthers! The booklet was digitized by FIU Special Collections and University Archives, and you can page through it at https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/77774

Mosquitoes, tolls, and a neighboring sewage plant: back in 1962, Virginia Key earned a painful 55/100 score on the initi...
08/21/2026

Mosquitoes, tolls, and a neighboring sewage plant: back in 1962, Virginia Key earned a painful 55/100 score on the initial feasibility study for Miami Marine Stadium. Commissioned after rainouts plagued too many Orange Bowl regattas, the $1.95M project moved forward anyway. Local engineer Herbert Saffir (who later went on to co-create the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale) helped bring it to life, 30 years before Hurricane Andrew ultimately shuttered the iconic venue.
The consultants recommended revenue bond financing, but issued a prophetically sharp warning: building on the cheap risked creating a "monument or white elephant."
🔗 Explore the full 1962 report in FIU Libraries' South Florida Collection, from the Government Resources and Information Department: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/1435
Friends of Miami Marine Stadium

Who remembers Love in the City? For a few decades, a good chunk of South Florida did. This is the Love 94 station on Fir...
08/20/2026

Who remembers Love in the City? For a few decades, a good chunk of South Florida did. This is the Love 94 station on First Street on South Beach, sometime between 1976 and 1984, back when the call letters were still WWWL and the format was "mellow rock".

The 93.9 frequency had already been through jazz, gospel, country and progressive rock before settling on "Love 94" in October 1976. The call letters changed to WLVE in 1984, the sound drifted toward smooth jazz, and the station held that spot on the dial until Christmas Day 2008.

If you still hear "I love 94" sung in your head, you're not alone (and Happy National Radio Day!) Photo courtesy of the Miami Beach Digital Archive, available in FIU Libraries' dPanther digital repository: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/90300

City of Miami Beach Government

Before Disney, I-95, and theme park passes, Florida road trips meant cruising US 1 and pulling over for interesting road...
08/17/2026

Before Disney, I-95, and theme park passes, Florida road trips meant cruising US 1 and pulling over for interesting roadside attractions. One of the ultimate destinations between Lake Worth and Delray Beach was the James Melton Autorama in Hypoluxo. The whole place was the passion project of James Melton, a Metropolitan Opera tenor and NBC star who collected vintage cars with as much passion as he sang.
Postcard from the Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/search?c=Boynton+Beach+City+Library+Local+History+Archives&cc=Boynton+Beach+City+Library+Local+History+Archives&ln=en

From selling homemade pies in Oakland Park to outfitting Miami Beach with saxophones, family businesses have always give...
08/11/2026

From selling homemade pies in Oakland Park to outfitting Miami Beach with saxophones, family businesses have always given South Florida its flavor.

Celebrating Sons and Daughters Day with a look at two storefronts where the next generation stepped up to the counter: Penna Mothers Place Daughters Pies (c. 1940s) and S. Ernest Philpitt & Son (1925).

You can explore both photographs in FIU's dPanther repository, made possible by the Ethel M. Gordon Oakland Park Library and Museum of Miami's Claude Matlack Collection.

Explore the photos:
🔗 https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/190805
🔗 https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/220919

Say what you will about his handling of the Great Depression, but when it came to fishing, Herbert Hoover was an absolut...
08/10/2026

Say what you will about his handling of the Great Depression, but when it came to fishing, Herbert Hoover was an absolute legend. On his birthday today, we're looking back at this classic snapshot of the 31st President showing off a massive sailfish off the Florida coast during his time in office (c. 1929–1932). Wool sweater, collared shirt, tie and dress shoes on a deck - the man had a style all his own.

Special thanks to the Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives for preserving slices of local history like this one. Check out the full photo and more in the Boynton Beach Photograph Collection in FIU Libraries' dPanther digital repository: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/15786

08/06/2026

August 6, 1924, Coral Gables
No radio in that car (still years off) so it's just engine noise and wind. The road under the tires was crushed coral rock (not quite yet paved) kicking up a pale dust cloud behind anything that passed. August heat, no AC, no power steering (also many years away) - just a driver wrestling the wheel through Le Jeune Plaza.
Photo by W.A. Fishbaugh, Coral Gables Museum Collection, Coral Gables Historical Resources Department in FIU Libraries' dPanther: https://dpanther.fiu.edu/record/3257

Address

11200 SW 8th Street/FIU Library
Miami, FL
33199

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 6pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 6pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 6pm
Thursday 8:30am - 6pm
Friday 8:30am - 6pm

Telephone

+13053486485

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Digital Collections Center at FIU Libraries posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category