Digital Commons Network^™

Agents Of Modernization In The Florida Keys: Fera, The American Red Cross, And The Concrete Hurricane Houses, Anne Marie Sowder

Florida Historical Quarterly

On a warm but mostly cloudy October night in 1935, recordbreaking crowds danced at a new club on the boulevard in Key West. While friends swayed to "slow fox trots and waltzes," eighty miles north-east, along the railway route between Key West and Miami, lay the debris of storm-tossed houses, a destroyed railroad, and ruined highway system. Initially predicted to hit Key West, the storm had instead hit the Upper Keys in the complete darkness of night, September 2, 1935, Labor Day weekend. Producing the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded over land in North America, its 200-mile-per-hour winds and crushing …

Early Town Planning In Middle Florida, Mark Reinberger

Florida Historical Quarterly

Historical study of Middle Florida in the antebellum period has understandably concentrated on the region's political evolution, economic development, and the formation of social classes. The region thus takes its place in the settlement of the southern backcountry as people from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia moved south and west for virgin land to plant, in the process creating an economy of plantations, small farms, and slavery. This forms part of the opening of the American frontier which stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Included as parts of this story in early Florida, as elsewhere in …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 100, No. 2, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Charting A Path Toward An Indigenous History Of Florida, Denise I. Bossy

Florida Historical Quarterly

In 1743, with the naive belief that the Calusas were finally interested in Catholic conversion, two Jesuit missionaries traveled to South Florida from Havana, Cuba. For decades Europeans described the region-in documents and on maps-as all but devoid of human life and, in particular, its Indigenous populations as being virtually extinct. Instead, the Jesuits discovered that South Florida was very much still under Indigenous control. A number of distinct Native confederacies-including one that consisted of Calusas, Bocarratons, and "Key" Indians and another of what one Spaniard called Maymies, Santaluzos, and Mayacas-exerted not only territorial control but also control over the …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 100, No. 1, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Florida History In Publications, 2020, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Pathfinders, Progressives, And Boosters: The 1911 "Gulf-To-Great-Lakes-As-The-Crow-Flies" Automobile Adventure, Martin T. Olliff

Florida Historical Quarterly

At 10 a.m. on September 3, 1911, Dr. S. R. M. Kennedy, Frank L. Mayes, A. M. Avery, Jr., and F. C. Brent, Jr., left Pensacola for Chicago in Kennedy's Speedwell 50 touring car. Calling themselves the "Gulf-to-Great-Lakes-As-The-Crow-Flies" pathfinders, their ostensible mission was to represent Florida at the Fourth International Good Roads Congress. But their real goals were to add a Pensacola-to-Birmingham route description to the American Automobile Association's Blue Book (to complete the trail between the Great Lakes and the Gulf) and to promote Pensacola as a destination for midwestern tourists. At a time when road conditions rattled bones …

Amateur Minstrel Shows And Blackface Amusements At The University Of Florida In The Jim Crow Era, Myles Sullivan

Florida Historical Quarterly

In the spring of 1914, the University of Florida's (UF) studentrun newspaper, The Florida Alligator, heralded "one of the biggest attractions of the spring season" with the front page headline "Heah Dey Kum! Dat Minstrel Show." As a theatrical performance style that had gained widespread popularity in the United States in the early 1800s, minstrel shows were often delivered with this imagined faux speech of rural African Americans. Its defining feature was culturally deemed white individuals "blacking up" their faces with burnt cork in visually cued racial caricatures acted out in music, song, and dance. Indeed, when subsequently reviewing the …

The History Of The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (Minwr): A Partnership Of Rockets And Wildlife, Charles Venuto

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Christmas season is associated with the creation of many lists such as gifts, groceries and holiday cards. But there is another list citizen scientists assemble this time of year as well. The National Audubon Society (NAS) Christmas Bird Count (CBC), originally established to counter what had turned into an annual Christmas day bird slaughter, began in 1900 and look place at 25 different sites, primarily in the northeast United States although California and the Midwest were also represented.

Seagrass-Roots Environmentalism: The Lee County Conservation Association, Chris Wilhelm

Florida Historical Quarterly

After World War II, Florida crafted a new identity: the Sunshine State. This concept was not solely based on Florida's hot weather and sunny skies although the relationship between sun and water was implicit in the new identity. Tourists enjoyed the sun on boats and beaches, retirees and snowbirds fled northern winters for new sunny coastal cities. The heat of Florida's sunshine was thus balanced by the state's coastal waters. The Sunshine State is a convenient slogan, but Florida is actually defined by its coast. Other states have more sunshine, but none in the continental U.S. have more coastline or …

Paradise Is Dynamic: Florida's Changing Landscape, Thomas Chesnes

Florida Historical Quarterly

The following interview was conducted in the summer of 2020. Thomas Chesnes, the interviewee, is long-time professor of biology at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. A native Floridian, Chesnes completed all of his degrees at the University of Florida in Gainesville (Ph.D., environmental engineering sciences/systems ecology/wetlands; M.S., environmental engineering sciences/estuarine systems; B.S., zoology). His research has focused on seagrasses, soil salinity, the Gulf killifish, the mangrove saltmarsh snake, the Atlantic red snapper, and all matters pertaining to wetlands, coastal habitats, and aquatic environments. For over a quarter of century, with numerous grants awarded (including a $50,000 …

Good Roads And The Dixie Highway: Connecting Florida With The Rest Of The Nation, Patrick Sheridan

Florida Historical Quarterly

During the early twentieth century, the creation of new highways enabled the United States to transition from rail to automobiles as its primary mode of travel. These highways resulted from the efforts of the national "Good Roads Movement," which promoted the construction of highways to enable the use of automobiles for both business and pleasure. This article looks at the Good Roads Movement in Florida and its connection with the Dixie Highway, the first major north-south highway connecting Florida with the rest of the United States, during its peak years between 1910 and 1930. This movement led to two significant …

The Hidden History Of The Florida-Born, Early Progressive Nurse Leader: Mary E. Macdonald Carter, Christine Ardalan

Florida Historical Quarterly

The young women of Miami High School gathered in the auditorium on April 4, 1919, for a vocational hour to bear "a number of Miami's most brilliant and successful women [impart] a taste of what is to be accomplished by choosing the fitting vocation and getting a right start." The Rev. Mrs. Mecca Marie Varney (1873-1959), the organizer of the event, was well known in Miami with clout to draw the adept speakers together. Hailing from Iowa, the evangelical minister was a national leader in the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and a lecturer on the Chautauqua Circuit. Earning widespread …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 98, No. 3/4, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Thulman and Garrison, eds., New Directions in the Search for the First Floridians. by Shawn Joy; Sledge, The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History. by Deanne Stephens; Smith, ed., Submerged History: Underwater Archaeology in Florida. by John J. Bertalan; Clavin, The Battle of Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community. by Uzi Baram; Nelson, How The New Deal Built Florida Tourism: The Civilian Conservation Corps and State Parks. by Tara Mitchell Mielnik; Odom and Waling, eds., NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement. by Amy E. Foster; Delerme, Latino Orlando: Suburban Transformation and Racial Conflict. by …

Free Blacks, Citizenship, And The Constitution In Florida Courts, 1821-1846, Craig Buettinger

Florida Historical Quarterly

In 1829, George J. F. Clarke of St Augustine called on the St. Johns County tax assessor to make a return (itemization) of his taxable properties and those of each of his five adult sons. Clarke was one of the city's leading men, born in St. Augustine to Scottish parents during Florida's British period. Clarke's sons, born once Florida had returned to Spanish rule, were his children by his mistress, Flora Leslie, a slave he had purchased in 1793 and emancipated in 1797. In November 1828, the Legislative Council for the Florida Territory had enacted a revenue law that taxed …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, Number 1, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Free Blacks, Citizenship, and the Constitution in Florida Courts, 1821-1846 by Craig Buettinger
"The Women of Florida Are Wide Awake": The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in Florida, 1897-1930 by Cynthia Patterson
The Happiest Place on Earth?: South Africa, Divestment, and Anti-Aparteid Movements in Orlando, Florida in the 1980s by Jacob Ivey
End Notes

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Martinez-Fernandez, Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba, by Ida Altman; Saravia, Bernardo de Galvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolution, by Light Townsend Cummins; Helg, Slave No More: Self-Liberation before Abolitionism in the Americas, by Christy Hyman; Demas, Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf, by Amy Essington; Lear, The Remarkable Kinship of Matjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Ellen Glasgow, by Jane Turner Censer; Spriggs, Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections from the Deep South, 1964-1980, by Melissa Milewski; Dunn, Drying Up: The Fresh Water Crisis in Florida, by Brad Massey

The Making Of Florida's "Criminal Class": Race, Modernity, And The Convict Leasing Program, 1877-1919, Connon Donegan

Florida Historical Quarterly

"To degrade a white man by physical punishment is to make a bad member of society and a dangerous political element," so declared the report ofthe three person committee appointed by the delegates to Florida's 1865 constitutional convention. Their charge was to facilitate the drafting of a new legal code in conformity with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a duly convicted crime. The criminal code enacted in the legislative sessions of 1865 and 1866 embodied the conviction of the formerly-Confederate lawmakers that the State of Florida would continue …

Volusia And Vibilia: Companion Plantations On The St. Johns River In Spanish And Territorial East Florida, Lani Friend

Florida Historical Quarterly

The names Volusia and Vibilia are mellifluous, "soft and pleasing to the ear." These are words used by Horatio Dexter to describe the Seminole language, but they are well suited to the names of these Spanish land grant plantations on the St.Johns River. Volusia and Vibilia seem to belong together because they do-they share a semantic affinity; they originate from a common cultural source; they were likely bestowed by the same person/s; and the lands bearing the names are closely linked in their history and development. Volusia and Vibilia were companion plantations in Spanish and Territorial East Florida.

Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 97, Number 4, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Volusia and Vibilia: Companion Plantations on the St. Johns River in Spanish and Territorial East Florida, Lani Friend
The Making of Florida's "Criminal Class": Race, Modernity, And the Convict Leasing Program, 1877-1919, Connor Donegan
Covert Cross-Racial Mobilization, Black Activism, and Political Participation Pre-Voting Rights Act, Loren Collingwood and Benjamin Bonzales-O'Brien
Book Reviews
End Notes
Index for Volume 97

All Disquiet On The Home Front: World War I And Florida, 1914-1920, Gary R. Mormino

Florida Historical Quarterly

On the eve of the First World War, the United States viewed events in Europe through a filter of isolationism and neutrality. Two vast oceans had reinforced an inclination toward internal affairs and paranoia, while engendering suspicion of diplomatic alliances and foreign revolutions. But events in faraway places-Sarajevo, St. Petersburg, and the Somme-made isolation impossible and neutrality improbable.

War, Fear, And Bread In Tampa, 1917-1918, Andy Huse

Florida Historical Quarterly

In early Febrnary 1917, two months before the U.S. entered World War I, local authorities in Tampa, Florida, required German aliens over age thirteen to register with the federal government. That same month, the city's German-American Club entered an extravagant float in the city's annual Gasparilla Fiesta parade. The float, one of only six that year, depicted a mighty waterfall. The Great War cast a long and dark shadow, unleashing a flood of fierce nationalism and suspicion across the U.S. home front. The conflict gave a new focus and urgency to anti-immigration fears across the nation, and the presence of …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, Number 3, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

All Disquiet on the Home Front: World War I and Florida, 1914-1920, Gary R. Mormino
War, Fear, and Bread in Tampa, 1917-1918, Andy Huse
The Sunshine State in Darkness: A Digital Approach to Florida and World War I, Michael Burke, Tyler Campbell, Kayla Campana
Book Reviews
End Notes

The Octofoil, January/February/March 2024, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Narratives Of Reproductive Control In The American Eugenics Movement, Cassandra M. Provost

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In this paper, I will explore the eugenics movement as a pseudo-scientific political, social, and legal phenomenon which had a devastating historical impact on America’s most vulnerable women, as well as briefly discuss its residual effects on contemporary reproductive rights conversations, through the lens of literature. Using an interdisciplinary discourse and narrative analysis approach, I identify two distinct themes within the explored narratives: (1) the importance of a government’s attempt to override a person’s autonomy by destroying the person’s ability to reproduce, and (2) the impropriety of actions based on a negative attitude toward disabled or undesirable persons. In my …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

The Fetterman Massacre: A Swiss American Officer Leads His Men To Disaster, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Following the American Civil War, the United States fought a major war against the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians known as Red Cloud’s War, which lasted from 1866 to 1868. It was a costly American defeat and an important Indian victory. A prominent leader of the Native Americans was the great war chief, Red Cloud, who engineered much of their success. The conflict included many raids, skirmishes, and three important and bloody engagements including the Hayfield and the Wagon Box Battles in 1867, and the highly significant Fetterman Massacre in 1866 in which the Swiss American Captain, William J. Fetterman, …

Annual Reports Of The Swiss American Historical Society, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

• Meeting began just after 9:30 AM Central Time.

• Officers present: Fred Gillespie, President; Tom Marabello, Vice President; Ernie Thurston, Treasurer & Membership Secretary; Richard Hacken, Webmaster

• Welcomed by Beth Zurbuchen, President and Board Chair John Etter, Swiss Center of North America, our hosts.

• John Etter said SAHS and the Swiss Center are connected by a desire to connect Swiss culture, heritage and rich history!

• Meeting began with President Fred Gillespie – proved naysayers wrong that people wouldn’t come to a non-East Coast location for the annual meeting.

• Should SAHS raise dues? Dues were last …

The Failed 1971-1973 Redevelopment Of Pruitt-Igoe, Rachael Heriford

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Majority of public housing in the United States is a failure of cyclical nature. Historians have examined the collapse of public housing either at a local level via the examination of a specific housing project or through a federal level by researching HOPE VI, the current federal housing policy since the 1990s that encourages demolishing and privatization of public housing. Up until the 1990s, demolition wasn't as common as it is today, and became more normalized after the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe in 1973. Pruitt-Igoe is one of the more notable examples of how badly public housing can fail. However, the …