Dorothy Dodd Collection--over 600 slides of Florida flowers and birds photographed by a former state librarian

Collection Number: M83-12
Creator: Dodd, Dorothy, 1902-1994.
Title: Florida Flowers and Birds Photographic Collection, ca. 1960-1979.
Quantity: 644 photographs (color slides)

Description: This collection includes hundreds of color slides depicting 71 families and 274 species of Florida flowers, as well as over 150 color slides of Florida birds. The collection also includes smaller numbers of images of fishing scenes, turtles and alligators, cane grinding, and old structures such as churches and dwellings. Dorothy Dodd took these images in the 1960s and 1970 in the Leon, Wakulla, and Franklin County areas.

Historical Note: Dorothy Dodd was appointed Florida's first State Archivist in 1941 and served as State Librarian from 1952 until 1965. Dr. Dodd published numerous scholarly articles, including a piece on Florida in the Civil War used in all editions of the Florida Handbook since 1961. Dr. Dodd also edited the centennial volume Florida Becomes a State, and wrote Florida, the Land of Romance. Nominated by former Governor LeRoy Collins, she was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame in 1986.

Throughout her tenure at the State Library of Florida, Dr. Dodd actively preserved valuable Florida records and documents. With her foresight and knowledge of the state and its history, she built a collection of outstanding scope and depth. She is credited with assembling more than 15,000 cataloged items in the Florida Collection of the State Library of Florida. Although there was no money for the archives, she managed to rescue from destruction and organize 260 linear feet of territorial and state records and manuscript collections, including old tax rolls from the Comptroller's Office; negatives from a Tallahassee photographer's attic; numerous church and fraternal organization journals, some dating back to 1838; original reports of Florida's role in the state and federal vote-fraud investigations surrounding the contested 1876 Hayes-Tilden presidential election; and other valuable records and documents chronicling the development of Florida. Many of these records are now part of the collections of the Florida State Archives; others remain in the State Library's Florida Collection, housed in the Dorothy Dodd Room.