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The Florida Political Papers are manuscript collections of Florida state and national politicians. In addition, the papers include local politicians, political activists and organizations, and legal based collections related to political issues.
About the Collections
The Florida Political Papers Collection consists of manuscript collections of Florida politicians who held state and national political office during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries as well as Florida politicians who ran, successfully or unsuccessfully, for state or national political office during those decades. In addition, the collection contains papers of individual non-office holders who were involved in local, state, and national political causes and campaigns. For example, the May Mann Jennings Papers, which document her involvement in the fight for women’s suffrage and environmental conservation. Also included are records of statewide political organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Florida and Florida legislative records.
The Florida Political Papers includes collections spanning the decades from 1800 to 2020 and beyond, from the David Levy Yulee Papers (territorial legislator, territorial delegate to Congress, and US Senator) to the Connie Mack III Political Papers ( state legislator, member of Congress, and US Senator, 1989-2001) and the Bill Nelson Political Papers (state legislator, state treasurer, member of Congress, and US Senator, 2001–2019). Expansive in scope, the papers provide correspondence (official and personal), reports, speeches, press information, official documents, and audiovisual material concerning many of the most consequential subjects and episodes in Florida and the nation’s history, including slavery, Indian wars, civil war, world wars, economic development and depression, presidential elections, environmental conservation, the Cold War, and space exploration.