FALL 2024 THIRD THURSDAY SERIES
Mandarin Museum is delighted to present our Fall 2024 Third Thursday Lecture Series featuring a diverse group of speakers and topics. Each lecture in the four-part series is presented in partnership with and held at Mandarin Community Club, 12447 Mandarin Rd.
ANDERSONVILLE REVISITED: AN ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE CIVIL WAR’S MOST INFAMOUS PRISON CAMP with DR. GUY PRENTICE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024, 6:30 – 8 PM
Dr. Guy Prentice is a retired National Park Service (NPS) archaeologist, who continues to volunteer at the Southeast Archeological Center in Tallahassee (SEAC) where he served for 34 years, retiring in 2020. During his NPS career he performed archeological investigations at thousands of sites distributed among 48 national park units in ten states. Among his favorite NPS projects were the excavations that he led at Andersonville National Historic Site.
Andersonville was viewed by the victorious Northern States as the scene of some of the worst atrocities suffered by prisoners during the American Civil War. Nearly one in three of the roughly 45,000 Union prisoners who passed through its gates died of malnutrition, exposure, disease, and the inhumanity of desperate men. After the war ended, the commandant of the prison camp, Capt. Henry Wirz, was tried, convicted and executed for the sufferings that the Union prisoners experienced, though many view him as a scapegoat who was wrongly blamed for the staggering number of Union prisoners that died at Andersonville from causes outside his control.
This lecture highlights the discoveries and findings of 50 years of archeology and recent historical research conducted by the speaker and includes 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 corrects 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.
As a volunteer with the NPS, Guy has spent four years working on preparing an in-depth report summarizing the history and archeology of Andersonville National Historic Site, where nearly 13,000 Union soldiers were buried after having died while held as prisoners at the nearby Civil War prison camp. His research and those carried out by other archeologists at Andersonville have made it the most archeologically studied Civil War prison camp in the country.
Refreshments begin at 6:30 PM, program begins at 7:00 PM. Admission is free.
Third Thursday Lectures are presented by the Mandarin Museum & Historical Society in partnership with and held at the Mandarin Community Club, located at 12447 Mandarin Road.
A 45-YEAR HISTORY OF INDIAN AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS IN JACKSONVILLE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Longtime Mandarin residents, Dr. Cynthia Anderson, her mother Dr. Tracy Khona, and their family will present a 45-year history of Indian American Immigrants in Jacksonville.
Refreshments begin at 6:30 PM, program begins at 7:00 PM. Admission is free.
Third Thursday Lectures are presented by the Mandarin Museum & Historical Society in partnership with and held at the Mandarin Community Club, located at 12447 Mandarin Road.
Thank you to our generous sponsors for supporting our Fall 2024 Third Thursday Lecture Series!
PAST THIRD THURSDAY EVENTS
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.”
Video Coming Soon…
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.