The Matheson Museum houses a library, archives and museum with an extensive collection of Florida and local history books and periodicals, and a growing collection of local historical maps, photographs, papers, and museum objects. The digital collections of the Matheson Museum represent a fraction of these holdings.

The Museum’s oral history collection includes 125 interviews of Alachua County residents from all walks of life. Topics include family history and genealogy, the home front experience during the World Wars, schools and businesses, development, race relations and integration, the University of Florida, and the experience of daily life and culture in Gainesville and Alachua County over a 100- year time span. The oral history program is ongoing, with several new interviews added annually.

The Museum is funded in part by grants from the City of Gainesville, Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Historical Museum Grants-in-Aid Program through the Bureau of Historical Museums, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, Secretary of State. Digitization of oral histories is funded in part by a grant from the Northeast Florida Library Information Network (NEFLIN).