Florida Archives Spotlight: The Bramson Archive

A VERY BRIEF LOOK AT A VERY FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GLEASON COLLECTION—NO RELATION TO JACKIE!

Dear friends and fellow members: 

Several years ago, we made the largest single purchase of historic Florida memorabilia ever made by a private individual in the state’s history when I bought the William, George and Lansing Gleason collection.

The time period of this massive collection ranges from the 1880s to the 1950s and the collection is not thousands, but, rather, tens of thousands of documents, the huge majority being Florida.

Among said collection are the only pieces known to exist from the ten years that Juno was the Dade County: thirteen letterheads dated between 1891 and early 1900 reading, at top,  “Office of the Dade County Clerk” (over) “Juno, Florida.”

Among the many other Gleason enterprises was the Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Co. which built what is today called the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It is an incredibly story.

Submitted by: Seth Bramson, The Bramson Archive