The video highlights several collections within the university archives housed in the Carl S. Swisher Library. This video was created in part from a grant provided by Northeast Florida Library Network.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Collection is located within the Carl S. Swisher Library on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, just steps away from the home she lived and worked. Since the collection spans Mary McLeod Bethune’s lifetime, much of what has been digitized includes documents, photographs, and scrapbooks pertaining to her life and works, her tenure as president of Bethune-Cookman College and her involvement in government and international affairs. The arrangement of the collection is in both series and box identification and divided into four series. The first series is Biographical Information and Writings, which consists of biographical and personal information on Mary McLeod Bethune, the majority of her speeches, and personal writings. The second series is correspondence and contains the bulk of her professional correspondence sent during her tenure as president of Bethune-Cookman College and involvement with The National Council of Negro Women, and the Federal Government. The third series is Subject Files and is labeled for specific individuals, event programs, correspondence, news clippings and organizations, including Eleanor Roosevelt, National Youth Administration and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The fourth series is Bethune-Cookman Administration and Bethune Foundation Files and because she was still involved in the school even after she retired as president, there are documents dated as late as 1955, the year that she died. The library also owns History Vault, a ProQuest database that houses her contributions to the Chicago Defender (460 Articles)

and The Pittsburgh Courier (25). You can access the Finding Aid to collection and request items using the Archive Information Request Form. For additional information about using the Archives for Research, click HERE.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Historic Home, located on the Bethune-Cookman University campus at 640 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard in Daytona Beach, Florida, was established as a Foundation on March 17, 1953, as "a place to awaken people and to have them realize that there is something in the world they can do." It was housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Historic Home, which was the primary residence of educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955). Also known as "The Retreat," the home was built by African American A. B. Reddick* around 1905. In 1913, chemist James Norris Gamble of Proctor & Gamble and Thomas White of White Sewing Machine Company, purchased the home for Mrs. Bethune. On December 2, 1974, the historic house was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, the museum closed for renovation and conservation and reopened in April of 2011. The home is now closed again for major renovations and conservation. The video was created to provide a tour of the home until it reopens.

*Recent research suggests that A. B. Raddick's last name should be spelled with an e instead of an a.