Location
418 East University Avenue, Gainesville, FL (across the street from the main museum building).
Located in the historic Gainesville Gospel Tabernacle building, which was built in 1933, it was renovated and restored by the museum in 2016.
Hours
By appointment only
The Matheson History Museum collections include more than 20,000 historic Florida postcards, 1,500 stereograph cards, and myriad maps, photographs, documents, books and artifacts. To schedule a research appointment please contact our Executive Director Kaitlyn Hof-Mahoney at director@mathesonmuseum.org or 352-378-2280.
Accessibility
The Library & Archives building has an ADA accessible ramp and bathrooms.
Online Catalog
You can now explore our collections online! What is currently available on the Public Access site is only a small part of our collection, so check back regularly for new additions.
Additional Resources
- Our library collection can be searched on the Alachua County Library District website at https://www.aclib.us/
- The Alachua County Library District has a wealth of information on Alachua County and Gainesville at https://www.aclib.us/research, including a digital archive of the Gainesville Sun newspaper and historic images of Alachua County.
- The Alachua County Clerk of Courts office hosts Ancient Records online at http://www.alachuaclerk.org/archive/. This site provides information such as marriage records, a deed index, and the Alachua Virtual Cemetery, among many other resources.
- The University of Florida Digital Collections are located at http://ufdc.ufl.edu/. The UFDC hosts more than 300 outstanding digital collections, containing over 12 million pages, covering over 78 thousand subjects in rare books, manuscripts, antique maps, children’s literature, newspapers, theses and dissertations, data sets, photographs, oral histories, and more for permanent access and preservation. Through UFDC, users have free and Open Access to full unique and rare materials held by the University of Florida and partner institutions.
- The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida can be found at http://oral.history.ufl.edu/ The mission of the program is to gather, preserve, and promote living histories of individuals from all walks of life. Since it’s founding in 1967, over 7,000 interviews have been conducted, and more than 150,000pages of transcribed materials may be found in the SPOHP Archives http://oral.history.ufl.edu/collections/ and the UFDC http://ufdc.ufl.edu/.
- Gainesville Street name conversions can be found here: Gainesville Street Name with Numbers Conversion Chart
- Melanie Barr – Extensive knowledge of historic homes and buildings in Gainesville; mvbarr@bellsouth.net
- Fred Awbrey – Consultant on local sports history; awbreyf@gmail.com
- Florida Memory, presented by the State of Florida Division of Library and Information Services is located at https://www.floridamemory.com/
- Florida Historical Markers is an excellent resource provided by the State of Florida, searchable by county. http://apps.flheritage.com/markers/
- Florida Department of State: Florida History http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/
- Chronicling America: Search America’s historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is a free resource sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Matheson History Museum 