From 1989 to 1996, Saundra Roper—better known as Capt. Peper— brought the skies to life as the pilot of Florida State University's official hot air balloon, the “Seminole Spirit.” With its vibrant colors soaring above FSU home games, the balloon became a symbol of pride. But Roper’s journey didn’t stop there—she took the Seminole Spirit to new heights, competing in the National Hot Air Balloon Championships in Baton Rouge in 1990 and 1991, and flying across the country in breathtaking locales, including a flight over Niagara Falls. The balloon also carried some of FSU’s most distinguished figures, including President “Sandy” D’Alemberte. Recently, Roper’s granddaughter honored this legacy by donating a remarkable collection of “Seminole Spirit” photographs—one of which is featured here—offering a glimpse into a little-known part of FSU history.

Submitted by: Taylor Henning, FSU Special Collections & Archives

Helen and William Cluett were synonymous with philanthropy and social life in Palm Beach. With William serving as president of the Everglades Club, and Helen’s astute attention towards volunteering with the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, Norton Museum of Art, the Kravis Center, and the Garden Club of Palm Beach, the Cluett’s name was impossible to miss. 

Helen Stedman Cluett was born in Shanghai, May 4th, 1920, to a diplomat father and mother. At three, the Stedman’s moved from Shanghai to New York City. At thirty-nine, she moved to Palm Beach. The Cluett Collection of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County presents a vibrant portrait of an ambitious and confident woman, from her childhood forward.

Among the collection are scrapbooks created throughout her life. Scrapbooks adorned with iconography of movie stars of 1933, a “current events” scrapbook of 1936 chronicling the ascension of George V to George VIII, and her own modeling scrapbook with telegraphs and news clippings.

With the scrappy penmanship of a thirteen-year-old girl, a scrapbook page is labeled “Models That I Know” with faces of her peers glued there. Three years later, she became a Ford model, and her portraits were printed in Look magazine. Through her modeling scrapbook, we see Helen gallivanting through the Upper East Side as a debutante; she befriended artists like Orville Bulman, and love letters poured into her 61st St. mailbox, which were pasted into her scrapbook.

Submitted by: Kalani LeBlanc, Historical Society of Palm Beach County 

The Tallahassee Regional Music Collection (TRMC), a project devoted to the music and musicians of Tallahassee and the surrounding areas, was launched in November 2024 through a partnership between the Warren D. Allen Music Library and the Center for Music of the Americas at Florida State University. The collection provides an opportunity for much-needed documentation of the region’s rich local music scene past and present. The collection features recordings and ephemera from artists such as Grant Peeples, T-Pain, Hot Tamale, Sammy Tedder, and so much more. In the year since its launch, the TRMC team has helped moderate a day-long series of panels on the issues facing local music-making hosted by the Council on Culture and Arts, conducted oral history interviews at the Florida Folk Festival as an exhibitor, and integrated the collection with two graduate musicology courses at FSU.

Link: https://music.fsu.edu/trmc/

Submitted by: Elizabeth Uchimura, Warren D. Allen Music Library

This commemorative enamel cup was given to attendees of the coronation of Tsar Nicolas II (the patriarch of the famous Romanov family, whose members were all murdered during a revolutionary coup in 1918) and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia on May 18, 1896, as printed on the cup with the initials “N” and “T,” and the royal crest on the opposite side. These cups were not produced outside the use of a coronation souvenir, so they are quite rare due to their specific place and time of origin. “How in the world did this cup end up in the collection of Riverside Avondale Preservation in the Buckland House in Jacksonville, Florida,” you ask? We have some theories! Learn more here: www.riversideavondale.org/blog.

Submitted by: Elaine Slayton, Riverside Avondale Preservation

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Martin Digital History (MDH) is a participatory digital archive led by the Martin County Library System. It features historical materials from local institutions and collectors, including Sandra Thurlow, the Historical Society of Martin County, the Black Heritage Initiative, and Stuart Heritage.

Among the unique resources featured are the Florida Photographic Concern Registers, loaned and housed by St. Lucie County. These four volumes record negative numbers and brief descriptions of photographs taken by the Florida Photographic Concern, founded in 1904 in Fort Pierce by Harry E. Hill. The company captured images all over Florida.

Many of these images circulate without credit, but small negative numbers in the corners can help identify them. Digitizing the registers offers a chance to reconnect these photos with their creators.

Do you have Florida Photographic Concern photos in your collection? Explore the registers and help preserve Florida’s visual history.

Link: http://www.martindigitalhistory.org/collections/show/77

Submitted by: Georgen Charnes, Martin Digital History

Earlier this year, theTampa-Hillsborough County Public Library’s Digital Collections added a new collection to the Hillsborough Black Experience, a digital repository encompassing special collections and oral histories reflecting Black life in Hillsborough County. I ingested the Clerks & Secretaries Organization, Inc. (CSO) Collection which was a group of professional African American women working in Tampa between 1964 and the early 2000s. The group was formed to assist community youth and lend support in obtaining employment for members.

These women worked on fundraising for programs, scholarships, and donations to local shelters, causes, and schools. Several of their fundraisers involved fashion shows where proceeds went to scholarships for underprivileged children. Another program depicts the CSOs providing new technology to students at Williams Elementary School, formerly located in East Tampa. This collection showcases the many ways Black Tampans supported their communities and worked hard to care for themselves and their families.

Link:  https://digitalcollections.hcplc.org/digital/collection/p16054coll9/search

Link: https://digitalcollections.hcplc.org/digital/collection/p16054coll5/search/searchterm/photographs/field/type/mode/exact/conn/and

Link: https://digitalcollections.hcplc.org/digital/collection/p16054coll5/search/searchterm/clerks%20%26%20secretaries%20organization%2C%20inc.%20%28cso%29%20collection/field/collec/mode/exact/conn/and/page/1 

Link: https://digitalcollections.hcplc.org/digital/collection/p16054coll5/id/2133/rec/17

Link: https://digitalcollections.hcplc.org/digital/collection/p16054coll5/id/2055/rec/41

Submitted by: Alice Fabela, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library

The Allen Lastinger Center for Florida History

The Allen Lastinger Center for Florida History celebrated its official grand opening on September 5, 2025.  This is an interdisciplinary center for academic excellence housed within University of North Florida’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library. Collecting primary and secondary source material related to the state of Florida's transportation and banking industries, from Precontact to the present, the Allen Lastinger Center for Florida History works to place Florida history within the larger context of the history of the United States and Atlantic world.

Shown in the photo is the first exhibit, Early Maps of Florida:Maps that Influenced how Europeans Viewed Florida and the Rest of the "New World" from the Allen Lastinger Collection. The corresponding digital exhibit can be viewed here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b1b48390743b411f93e1da0b43b33ddd 

Link: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b1b48390743b411f93e1da0b43b33ddd

Submitted by: Hilary Streifer, Thomas G. Carpenter Library, University of North Florida

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum Collections

The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale (NASFL or NAS Fort Lauderdale) was built on the Merle Fogg Flying Field in 1942 as part of the national defense program, serving as one of 257 air stations during World War II, and as one of a few specialty schools for training on the TBM/TBF Avenger aircraft.

NAS Fort Lauderdale made an indelible mark on the economy and growth of South Florida, and the United States, as a whole. Building 8, the Link Trainer Building, housed 6 to 8 Link Trainer flight simulators. It is the lone remaining structure on the naval base property, a reminder of a naval complex of more than 200 buildings. This building is now the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum.

The NSU Alvin Sherman Library and the NASFL partner to preserve the museum's collections.

Link: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nasflmuseum/

Link: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nasfl/158/

Link: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/nasfl/157/ 

Submitted by: Bebe Chang, NSU Libraries Alvin Sherman Library

Started by Joseph Bryant in the early 1920s, Sunny Scenes Inc. was a successful Winter Park business from 1923 to 1949, producing hand-painted color greetings cards, note cards, and large pictures by using stencil and air brush techniques. During the heyday of its operation, the company employed 15 or so women in a two-story building at 421 Fairbanks Avenue, adjacent to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks that intersected Fairbanks Avenue. The largest number of postcards produced by Sunny Scenes are of Florida subjects, but the company also created postcards of 15 other states, such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, as well as Cuba, Haiti, and Panama. This collection of 254 hand-painted postcards was donated to Rollins College by Dr. Jay Meching, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California Davis in 2019.

Link: https://aspace.rollins.edu/repositories/2/resources/134

Submitted by: Wenxian Zhang, Rollins College Archives & Special Collections

Florida Archives Spotlight: Maps of Mount Dora Collection and Exhibit at the W.T. Bland Public Library

Mount Dora City Archivist Erin Creel spent several months locating, researching and publishing the new Maps of Mount Dora collection, found athttps://mountdoraarchives.com/digital/collection/maps. This collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the city's rich past through historical and contemporary maps dating as far back as 1829. This project was greatly enhanced by the assistance of local surveyor and library volunteer John Hoechst. Creel researched about 150 maps from various sources, including the Mount Dora Archives, the Lake County Historical Society, the Florida Memory Project and others. Of those 150 maps, 88 were published in this collection, with accompanying metadata and source credits. In addition to the new digital collection, an exhibit showcasing 20 of these maps will be on display in the library's lobby, from October 1 through Thanksgiving, thanks to the generosity of The Mount Dora Library Association. Several of these maps remain on permanent display in the library.

Link: https://mountdoraarchives.com/digital/collection/maps 

Submitted by: Erin Creel, W.T. Bland Public Library