Edward T. Keenan Papers
Scope and Content
The Edward T. Keenan Papers consist of photocopied originals of scouting reports, diaries, and correspondence from Florida's Seminole Wars. His principal interests were in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) and the Third Seminole War (1855-1858). Photocopies come mostly from the National Archives. Many have transcriptions typed up by Keenan. For his transcriptions, Keenan composed a short statement describing the content of each transcription and notes explaining the importance of each topic.
During the 1950s, Kennan compiled files documenting the locations of forts from the Seminole Wars. Organized alphabetically by the name of each fort, the files include historical notes and correspondence, history of the forts, map locations, and Keenan's own field notes. A few photographs relating to the location of forts are included in the collection.
Keenan also compiled a small collection of photographs documenting Seminole life during the 1950s in and around Big Cypress. Keenan is the subject of a few of the photographs, as well.
Keenan contributed articles to the Tampa Tribune's Sunday feature "Pioneer Florida" by D.B. McKay. The collection contains a run of these columns from 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958, and 1960. Other contributors include Albert DeVane and Frog Smith.
Dates
- Creation: 1835-1960
Creator
- Keenan, Edward T., 1882-1961. (Person)
Access
The collection is open for research.
Biographical/Historical Note
Edward T. Keenan was born on July 22, 1882 in Watertown, New York. He served as a major in the U.S. Army and went on to a career as a soil scientist. Keenan's scientific studies were carried out in Frostproof, Florida where, in 1928, he established the Keenan Soil Laboratory. When he retired from the lab in 1950 he devoted the majority of his time to researching the Seminole Wars. He took special interest in the location of Seminole War forts around the state of Florida, compiling material as part of the Keenan Library of Seminole War Facts. Keenan died on July 2, 1961.
Thomas O. Brown worked with Keenan in his research on the Seminole Wars and accompanied him on his field research.
Source: Who Was who in Florida by Henry S. Marks (Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1973) and "Locating Seminole Indian War Forts" by Thomas O. Brown, The Florida Historical Quarterly 40 (1962):310-315.
Extent
3 Linear feet (4 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Notes of Seminole War fort locations; photocopied originals of scouting reports, diaries, correspondence from the National Archives and typed transcriptions; photos of Seminoles. Compiled by Edward T. Keenan and Thomas Brown.
Physical Location
University of Florida Smathers Library Building
Acquisition Information
Gift of Thomas Owen Brown
Processing Information
The Edward T. Keenan Papers also included books and maps, which were incorporated into the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History.
- Title
- A Guide to the Edward T. Keenan Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Stephanie Slota
- Date
- December 2009
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Repository
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117005
Gainesville Florida 32611-7005 United States of America
352-273-2755
special@uflib.ufl.edu