Progress Report - University of Miami Libraries

Preserving
Cultural Heritage
Through Digitization
The Libraries received a $199,500 grant from the Florida
State Department of Cultural Affairs in 2006 to digitize and
provide Web access to photographs and the most important
historical and literary manuscripts in the Cuban Heritage
Collection (CHC). Funding from the grant provided infrastructure
for a fully searchable digital repository, the development of a
sustainable workflow for digitization, and the creation of metadata
for all digital assets.
The Cuban Photograph Collection covers a wide range of topics
about Cuba and the Cuban Diaspora. The Cuban Historical and
People gathered at an outdoor cafe in Havana, Cuba. These gathering places located across from the Capitolio were called “aires libres”
[open-air cafes]. The undated photograph is from the Cuban Heritage Collection’s Toy Moon LLC Photograph Collection.
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Literary Manuscript Collection is comprised of original manuscripts
from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Acquired as individual
pieces or in small groups, this collection includes manuscripts, books,
slavery sales and property documents, wills, and correspondence.
Of particular interest are a manuscript journal of events of the
British expedition in Cuba in 1762 that culminated in the siege of
Havana by the English, a circa 1887 photo album of American visitors
to Cuba that gives insight into travel and tourism on the island before
American intervention, and photographs of Cuban life before the
1959 revolution.