“FIFTY YEARS OF CHANGE AND THE ST. JOHNS RIVER”
Dr. Quinton White
Thursday, November 20, 2025, 6 – 8 PM
Mandarin Museum, 11964 Mandarin Rd.
Admission: FREE
Museum opens and refreshments begin at 6 PM; Program begins at 7 PM
Dr. Quinton White, Marine Biologist and Executive Director Emeritus of the Marine Science Research Institute at Jacksonville University, will reflect on his decades-long career conducting research on the St. Johns River. “Fifty Years of Change” will explore not only the changes Dr. White has seen in the river but also the evolving ways in which we study and understand it.
About the Speaker: Dr. Quinton White, Jr., Ph.D., is Executive Director Emeritus, Marine Science Research Institute and Professor of Biology and Marine Science at Jacksonville University. The Marine Science Research Institute building opened in 2010 and is the first LEED certified Gold building on the JU campus. The MSRI recently became home to OCEARCH which is the world’s largest shark tagging and ocean research program of its kind. White joined the faculty at Jacksonville University in 1976, having completed his Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina at the Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research. Dr. White has written numerous research and technical papers or reports and received grants and contracts to support marine research at JU. Currently he is conducting research on the history of human impact on the Florida environment and especially on the St. Johns River with a focus on manatees and water quality issues.
Dr. White has been active in the Jacksonville community and writes a monthly column in the Florida Times-Union called “River Life.” He is President-elect of the Southern Association of Marine Labs and past-Board Chair of the Southeastern Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association. Recent awards have included Florida Wildlife Federation Marine Conservationist of the Year in 2015, the Regional Leadership Award from the Northeast Florida Regional Council and the City of Jacksonville’s Christi P. Veleta Environmental Award in 2014. He was honored by Leadership Jacksonville in 2011 as a Community Trustee. In 2010 he received the City of Jacksonville Mayor’s Environmental Achievement Award. He was recognized as a 2016 Veteran of Influence by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Dr. White served in the U.S. Army prior to starting graduate school at the University of Virginia where he earned a MS in 1972.
Thank you to our generous sponsors for supporting our
Fall 2025 Third Thursday Lecture Series!
PAST THIRD THURSDAY EVENTS
STETSON KENNEDY: REMEMBERING THE MAN WHO UNMASKED THE KLAN
AUTHOR TIM GILMORE
THURSDAY, October 23, 2025
Florida writer and activist Stetson Kennedy gained notoriety for having infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan but he is also remembered as one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the 20th century. He made his home in Fruit Cove, just south of Mandarin, at Beluthahatchee. The place was designated a wildlife sanctuary when he moved there and is now a historical site. His books include Palmetto Country, Southern Exposure, Jim Crow Guide, and The Klan Unmasked.
Tim Gilmore is the creator of jaxpsychogeo.com, a 12-year project (so far) that tells more than 800 “true story portraits” of his hometown of Jacksonville, FL. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida and teaches writing at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where four of his plays have been staged. He writes regularly at timgilmore.substack.com. He writes about the haunted South and how the South haunts America.
“ROOTS & ROUTES: FROM EDISTO TO FLORIDA – A FAMILY’S JOURNEY
AUTHOR GREG ESTEVEZ & GULLAH HISTORIAN ELAINE FORD JACKSON
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2025
Mandarin Museum was pleased to partner with the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor as they presented Roots and Routes, a 3-part series amplifying the history and living legacy of Gullah Geechee people in Florida. Session 2 of this virtual series was presented in person at Mandarin Museum on Thursday, August 21st.
Greg Estevez, author of Edisto: The Migration to Florida, shared his family’s journey from Edisto Island, SC to the Mandarin area of Florida. Gullah Historian Elaine Ford Jackson will offer historical framing and personal reflections to deepen the conversation around cultural continuity and community resilience.
“JACKSONVILLE THROUGH THE LENS OF SELF”
BOB SELF, SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER (RETIRED), FLORIDA TIMES–UNION
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2025
Mandarin Museum’s May 2025 Third Thursday featured recently retired Florida Times-Union Senior Staff Photographer Bob Self as he recounted his four decades of work documenting the stories, people, and events that have shaped Jacksonville’s more recent past. Perhaps no Third Thursday Lecture has had or will have a PowerPoint presentation as stunning or poignant.
GALLERY TOUR OF EVOLUTION IN CLAY: A VINA SCHEMER RETROSPECTIVE with ARTIST VINA SCHEMER
THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2025
Artist Vina Schemer hosted a wonderful evening in her exhibition, Evolution in Clay: A Vina Schemer Retrospective. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Evolution in Clay documents Vina’s evolving interests and techniques, from raku pottery to the perfecting of photo-transfer on clay. During refreshment hour, Vina was available in the gallery to speak with guests. Following, Vina delivered a presentation giving insight into her inspiration, techniques, and the stories behind some of her favorite pieces.
ENHANCING YOUR YARD WITH TREES: TIPS FOR BEAUTY AND FUNCTION with URBAN FORESTER LARRY FIGART
THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2025
Larry Figart, Urban Forester with the UF/IFAS Duval County Extension Office, presented “Enhancing Your Yard with Trees: Tips for Beauty and Function.” Discover what trees are not only beautiful but also well-suited for your landscape. Learn about the proper planting and care to ensure your yard is truly Florida friendly.
SPIRES IN THE SUN: THE CARPENTER GOTHIC EPISCOPAL CHURCHES OF FLORIDA with AUTHOR JONATHAN RICH
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025
Author Jonathan Rich presented on his recent book, Spires in the Sun: The Carpenter Gothic Episcopal Churches of Florida, featuring over 500 pages of stories of the oldest surviving wood-frame Episcopal churches in Florida. “Built in the 1800s when Florida was still the nation’s raw southeastern frontier, these churches breathed the romantic sensibilities of England’s stone parish churches into a new medium: wood. Together with their Carpenter Gothic counterparts elsewhere on the nation’s frontiers, they elevated the American wooden church to new heights of historicity, imagination, and beauty,” says Rich.
In 2024, Spires in the Sun was awarded the Charlton Tebeau Award for a general-interest book on a Florida history topic by the Florida Historical Society.
A 45-YEAR HISTORY OF INDIAN AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS IN JACKSONVILLE with DR. CYNTHIA ANDERSON, DR. TRACY KHONA, AND MR. RICK KHONA
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2024
Longtime Mandarin residents Dr. Cynthia Anderson and her parents, Dr. Tracy Khona and Mr. Rick Khona, presented a “45-year History of Indian American Immigrants in Jacksonville.” Dr. Khona was among the first to emigrate from India to the Jacksonville area. In the decades following, a vibrant Indian American community formed and continues to grow, anchored by Mandarin (home to The Hindu Society of North East Florida on Greenland Rd.) and the Baymeadows and Southside neighborhoods. The presentation highlighted Jacksonville’s industries that precipitated the influx of Indian immigrants to the area, the realities of the journey during the 1970s and 1980s, and the cultural traditions that have remained part of the community’s identity in subsequent generations of Indian Americans.
ANDERSONVILLE REVISITED: AN ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE CIVIL WAR’S MOST INFAMOUS PRISON CAMP with DR. GUY PRENTICE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024
Dr. Prentice’s lecture highlighted discoveries and findings during his 50 years of archeology and recent historical research and included data on the techniques used in the original construction of the prison stockade built by enslaved workers, the extension of the prison enclosure built by imprisoned Union soldiers, an attempted prisoner escape tunnel that failed before completion, and some of the crude shanties that were built by the prisoners for shelter. It also corrected some of the erroneous “facts” that have been repeated about Andersonville by prison camp survivors and modern historians striving to explain what was experienced by both Union prisoners and their Confederate captors during the 14 months that Andersonville prison camp was occupied.
MEMPHIS WOOD: THREADS OF MODERNITY with DR. ELIZABETH HEUER
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
In conjunction with the “Memphis Wood: Revisited” exhibition, Dr. Heuer’s talk, Memphis Wood: Threads of Modernity, examined the art of Memphis Wood within the context of the Studio Craft Movement’s rise in late 20th-century America. Focusing on fiber arts, we explored Wood’s work alongside that of celebrated artists such as Mariska Karasz, Sheila Hicks, and Anni Albers. Their contributions were situated within the broader contexts of post-war art movements, providing a comprehensive understanding of their impact and legacy.
Dr. Elizabeth Heuer is Associate Professor of Art History at University of North Florida and co-curator of “Memphis Wood: Revisited.”
STORYTELLING with THE MAPLE LEAF DIVERS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2024
August’s Third Thursday Lecture featured Dr. Keith Holland and his team of Maple Leaf Divers. In the 1980s, they formed St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc. and sued the federal government for the rights to dive the 1864 wreckage of the Maple Leaf steamboat. The Maple Leaf was a Union vessel sunk by a Confederate mine in the St. Johns River just off the bank of Mandarin Point. For more than 100 years, its cargo hold sat undisturbed in the muddy river bed. Mandarin Museum is now home to the most comprehensive exhibit on this National Historic Landmark. BUT, not every story could make it into the exhibition.
CHEF DENNIS CHAN
THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2024
May’s Third Thursday Lecture continued our series, “Our Mandarin Neighbors.” Featuring Chef Dennis Chan of Blue Bamboo, guests enjoyed a taste of some of his popular menu items. In addition, Chef Dennis presented his family’s story, their history of feeding Jacksonville and the Mandarin community since the 1930s, and the blended cultural traditions that inspire him today.
BRITTANY COHILL, MANDARIN MUSEUM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
April 18, 2024
Since the 1970s, Mandarin has experienced rapid growth. Long gone is its rural nature – the community is now solidly suburban. Many longtime residents lament this change in character, pace, and scenery.
Mandarin Museum’s Executive Director, Brittany Cohill, explores the ways in which Mandarin’s fate is representative of national trends in housing and commercial development since the end of World War II. Newcomers to Mandarin – most a part of Generation X and the Millennial Generation – inherited these trends that influenced their settlement in suburban communities.
Despite calling Mandarin home for 22 years, Cohill is considered one of these newcomers by Mandarin natives. As part of “Our Mandarin Neighbors” theme, she will tell her family’s story against the backdrop of historical events, and locate her move to Mandarin within its context.
JUDGE HENRY DAVIS
March 21, 2024
Judge Davis grew up in Jacksonville and graduated from a segregated Douglas Anderson High School. Coming of age during the 1950s and ’60s Black struggle for civil rights, Davis felt strongly he could make a difference by studying and practicing law. After serving as a naval officer in the Vietnam War, he graduated with his law degree from FSU. He worked for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. before entering private practice. In 1992, Florida Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Davis to the Duval County Circuit Court, making Judge Davis just the second Black circuit court judge in Northeast Florida.
IRENE & ANDREW JAFFA
February 15, 2024
Longtime Mandarin residents Irene Jaffa and her son, Andrew, shared their family’s harrowing story of Holocaust survival and immigration to the United States at the end of WWII. This presentation was in partnership with the LJD Jewish Family & Community Services.
ARTIST BRENDA COUNCILL: Celebrating 50 Years
November 9, 2023
With a career spanning 50 years, Councill made a name for herself in Jacksonville with her popular series of limited edition prints and drawings of historic Mandarin homes and sites. Since, she has explored diverse mediums including painting, sculpture, and mixed media. Now internationally known, her work is in corporate, private, and public collections in the United States and around the globe. As a longtime former resident of Mandarin, her heart has remained with the community she holds dear. Her current project focuses on creating the first and only life-sized sculpture of Harriet Beecher Stowe to be installed in Walter Jones Historical Park. A scale model of the proposed bronze sculpture is currently on display in the Stowe Gallery at Mandarin Museum.
GREG HOLBROOK: The Murray/Sheldon Family of Mandarin & New Smyrna
August 17, 2023
Greg Holbrook, Executive Director of the New Smyrna Museum of History, presented on the Murray/Sheldon family, early 19th-century residents of Mandarin. Originally from Philadelphia, George Murray was a well-known engraver. The family also owned land grants in Mandarin and New Smyrna. Mr. Murray died young, and his wife and children came to Mandarin alone. Their daughter, Jane Murray, married John Dwight Sheldon in what is now Walter Jones Historical Park. Jane and Dwight buried three children on the land before selling the property in 1840. They moved to New Smyrna where they became well-known and distinguished citizens.
WAYNE WOOD: Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage
May 18, 2023
Wayne Wood presented an intriguing slide presentation based on his new book, Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage: Bicentennial Edition, as well as stories and little-known facts about some of the city’s most interesting buildings.