Florida State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives has opened an extensive collection of photographs donated by local photojournalist Mark Wallheiser. Spanning decades of Florida history, it includes millions of photographic prints, negatives, film slides and digital images.
Among its highlights are images of campus life at FSU, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee State College (formerly Tallahassee Community College), as well as photographs of professional and collegiate sports, natural disasters and significant events in the capital city.
“Mark’s career and output are astounding,” said Rory Grennan, director of Archives for FSU Libraries. “We’ve rarely seen such extensive documentation of Florida and FSU history in one place. Mark’s gift to the university is also a gift to the public and to posterity. I expect that we’ll see a demand for these images for many years to come.”
Over the past year, the FSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives team has developed detailed online descriptions of the collection and digitized a selection of negatives. Wallheiser and the Libraries envision the collection becoming a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, students and educators.
The photographs in this collection were taken during Wallheiser’s 44-year career in North Florida. Wallheiser was a staff photographer at the Tallahassee Democrat from 1981 to 2008 and a freelancer from 2008 to 2025. He was also the staff photographer for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering from 2018-2023. The Society for Professional Journalism named him Florida News Photographer of the Year in 1989. After multiple individual Pulitzer Prize nominations, Wallheiser was part of a team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service covering Hurricane Katrina.
“Professional photographic storytelling in the 1970s through the turn of the century are so important for their historical nature and believability, as now-days 5.5 billion photos are taken every single day, 94% of which are taken on smartphones,” Wallheiser said.
The Special Collections and Archives Division of the FSU Libraries advances research by acquiring, preserving and providing access to rare and unusual books and original primary source materials.
The collections range from ostraka, cuneiform tablets, papyri, illuminated manuscripts, and incunabula to modern artist books, literary manuscripts, and business records. Strengths of the collections include poetry, Napoleon and the French Revolution, political papers, Florida history, Southern business history and the history of FSU.
For more information about this collection, visit Mark Wallheiser photographic archive.
To learn more about FSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives, visit lib.fsu.edu/special-collections or contact the team at lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu or 850-644-3271.