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Florida Collection May 2024 Focus: Florida Citrus Industry Close-up of picking grapefruit at: Avon Park, Fla., 1924 PA 18961 |
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FEATURED BOOKS FROM THE FLORIDA COLLECTION: |
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Citrus Crate Labels of Florida is a lavishly illustrated book that offers the citrus historian or citrus crate label collector a large selection of antique labels used by Florida citrus growers and packers. With reproductions of more than 247 labels, many in color, the book introduces the reader to a brief history of the Florida citrus industry and the interesting hobby of collecting colorful citrus crate labels. |
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by Anne E. F. Jeffrey Whether you're responsible for acres of orange, tangerine, or grapefruit trees, or just grow limes and lemons in your backyard, Citrus Growing in Florida has been an indispensable guide for nearly fifty years. Now available in a fifth edition, this concise, comprehensive book combines the practical day-to-day aspects of citrus growing with underlying horticultural principles in a clear, easy to read style. Authors Frederick Davies and Larry Jackson have a combined eighty years of experience with citrus culture and production, teaching, extension, and research. The revisions in this edition cover new regulations, new pests and diseases, and new issues in marketing and selling citrus. For commercial growers, the book discusses planting, production, grove management, fertilization, spraying, and harvesting. For homeowners, it provides practical advice on growing the tart, tangy, sweet, and juicy fruits that define the flavor of the Sunshine State. |
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The Citrus Industry in the Sunshine Stateby Brian Weaver From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this "golden age" can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history.
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AgNet Media Citrus Industry, a monthly magazine, delivers key information to citrus growers, production managers and other citrus business people. It provides the most current information available to help owners and producers successfully grow and market their fruit. And it is the only Florida publication focused entirely on citrus. |
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by Bruce and Lee Fischer The cook book introduces readers to a variety of citrus fruits and how to use them. It features tempting recipes for luscious pies, dazzling desserts, sunshine salads, novelty meat and seafood dishes! Plus tangy thirst-quenchers made from oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes and tangerines are also included. |
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by Elizabeth Riegler MacManus This book is a must for anyone interested in Florida history. It preserves an attic-full of memorable images and charming stories of Lutz and the many small communities that sprang up in northern Hillsborough and central Pasco counties in the 1800s and early 1900s. Combining expert research and colorful narrative vignettes with old photographs, letters, maps, and other archival materials, the authors have lovingly stitched together an intricate heirloom quilt of memories, histories and homespun 'Cracker' wisdom. It includes pictures of the many orange trees which filled the area. |
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by James Hopkins
Fifty Years of Citrus is a clear-cut authentic account of the organization and development of the Florida Citrus Exchange - a federated marketing cooperative active on the Florida citrus scene for the past half-century. In addition to its historical significance, Fifty Years of Citrus represents the most comprehensive record of the development for the Florida citrus industry yet undertaken. As the first large citrus sales organization in the state, the Exchange became an important factor almost simultaneously with its activation in 1909, and it has been prominent in citrus affairs, both domestic and foreign, ever since. |
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This book is a historical look at the Florida citrus industry and is illustrated with old Florida postcards. These early postcards illustrate citrus fruit, citrus trees, citrus groves, citrus pickers, citrus packers, citrus roadside stands, citrus crate labels, and citrus advertising. They are firsthand pictorial accounts of the past. The postcards are truthful representations of past days because they are from the past. The purpose of this book is to share some of these historical views with present-day readers. Many Floridians, Florida tourists, citrus postcard collectors and citrus crate label collectors will recognize scenes form the past in these pages. All postcards in this book are from the private collection of the author except for a few which were loaned by his daughter, Susan Spencer. |
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by Robert Allen Morris Florida Gold is a historical novel, comprised of fiction and nonfiction. It was originally published in 2011 under the title “The Orange Juice King.” In 2013 it was rewritten with 21 percent new content, retitled to reflect the broader content of the book, and copyrighted under the new title. Florida Gold is the saga of Jack Thomas, a young orphan who after escaping from a North Florida labor camp, rises to prominence as Florida’s leading citrus magnate. A compelling story that carries with it both the ugliness and beauty that was Florida in the Twentieth Century—this novel chronicles the development of Florida’s citrus industry from the 1930s to the present. Morris’s characters are authentic and believable. This is great Florida fiction in the Patrick Smith vein. |
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by Erin Thursby The first orange groves, planted in St. Augustine in the 1500s by Ponce de León, were the precursor to what would become an integral part of Florida's identity. Orange groves slowly spread across the state, inspiring horticultural and manufacturing ingenuity. Discover the story behind Deland's eccentric "citrus wizard" Lue Gim Gong, the rise and fall of smuggler Jesse Fish and the silver-tongued politician William J. Howey, who made his fortune selling plots of groveland through the 1920s. Celebrate the heyday of orange tourism and the farmers who weathered freezes, floods and citrus greening. Join author Erin Thursby as she explores the history of the Sunshine State's most famous crop. |
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by Joy Sheffield Harris The book tells the tales of some of Florida's most famous desserts, from Key lime pie to citrus candy to the famous feud cake at Captain Anderson's Restaurant." -Panama City News Herald Sweets and the Sunshine State are a match made in heaven. Centuries ago, native Floridians used honey to sweeten dishes, as well as prickly pears and other wild fruits and berries. Spanish explorers introduced citrus to the area, leading to a major industry. Florida pioneers planted sugar cane and sweet potatoes as basic crops. Cane grinding, taffy pulls and homemade ice cream socials were once beloved community events across the state. The state pie of Florida, the Key lime pie, has been an addition to family affairs and restaurant menus since its inception in the late 1800s. From strawberry festivals to Florida flan, author Joy Sheffield Harris uncovers the state's unique sweets with a taste of sunshine. |
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The author, Dr. John Attaway, is an acknowledged world authority on citrus. This book is the first attempt to pull together the complete historical perspective of the tragic freeze events of the past. Gathered together in one volume are historical facts encompassing all facets of low temperature effects on citrus. The book chronicles the details of the major freezes in Florida from 1835 through 1989. In addition, there is a wealth of invaluable data on forecasting freezes, meteorology, the California freezes, effects of freezes on citrus processing and other pertinent facts. |
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Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice by Alissa HamiltonClose to three quarters of U.S. households buy orange juice. Its popularity crosses class, cultural, racial, and regional divides. Why do so many of us drink orange juice? How did it turn from a luxury into a staple in just a few years? More important, how is it that we don’t know the real reasons behind OJ’s popularity or understand the processes by which the juice is produced? In this enlightening book, Alissa Hamilton explores the hidden history of orange juice. She looks at the early forces that propelled orange juice to prominence, including a surplus of oranges that plagued Florida during most of the twentieth century and the army’s need to provide vitamin C to troops overseas during World War II. She tells the stories of the FDA’s decision in the early 1960s to standardize orange juice, and the juice equivalent of the cola wars that followed between Coca-Cola (which owns Minute Maid) and Pepsi (which owns Tropicana).
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Through the Groves : a Memoirby Anne Hull"Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father's family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. "Look now," her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. "It will all be gone." But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter in white boots. As her sexual identity took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape. Here, Hull captures it all-the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of life, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed family, the casual racism of the rural South in the 1960s, and the suffocating expectations placed on girls and women. Vividly atmospheric and haunting.
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LIBRARY AND TAMPA BAY AREA EVENTS: |
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Thursday, May 2 through Wednesday, July 31, 2024 John F. Germany Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., 2nd floor. Award-winning artist, Lorraine Robertson sees beauty in many places, and she paints or draws nearly every day. Her work presently hangs in both private and corporate collections and will now be featured in the Louise & Arnold Kotler Gallery. In her acrylic series, “Heroes,” Lorraine hopes to portray famous people who exhibited extreme heroism and dedication under difficult conditions. Please join us for a reception hosted by the Friends of the Library on May 4th from 2-4 PM. |
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Learn strategies for using federal, state and special census records to research genealogy. Limit of 10 participants. Registration is recommended. |
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Cecil Beach Conference Room - 4th floor Meeting is a hybrid meeting. LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson will be presenting via webinar in the Beach Conference Room in the Florida History and Genealogy Library at the John F. Germany Public Library. Alternately, you can attend via Zoom webinar. Genealogy standards have universal application; however, there are strategies that are particularly useful for researching African American ancestors with roots in the antebellum period who present unique challenges. This webinar will provide an overview of “best practices” for achieving credible results, by providing a conceptual foundation for tackling genealogical issues in any of the historical slave states. |
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Introduction to Genealogy Wednesday, May 15, 10:30 - 11:30 am North Tampa Library - Computer Lab Learn tools and strategies for getting started with family research. Recommended for adults. Registration recommended.
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Learn about and explore this extraordinary photo archive. Recommended for adults. |
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Join us for our inaugural Florida History Collection book club to discuss The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Copies of the book are available at the library, or in our library catalog in e-audiobook format. For adults. Registration is not required. When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Based on the real story of the Dozier School for Boys that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children. |
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FGS MeetingSaturday, June 1, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm John F. Germany Library Cecil Beach Conference Room - 4th floor Meeting is a hybrid meeting. Judy Russell will be presenting via webinar in the Beech Conference Room in the Florida History and Genealogy Library at the John F. Germany Public Library. Alternately, you can attend via Zoom webinar. Understanding what is and isn’t copyrighted and what genealogists can and can’t use is the key to staying out of trouble and to protecting our own work. Learn about what copyright is, and what it isn’t.
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Days of Fear: a Lynching in St. Petersburgby John WilsonDays of Fear exposes the shocking story of a gruesome 1914 murder in St. Petersburg, Florida and the calculated lynching of the Black man accused. Who killed Frank Sherman with a shotgun blast inches from his head? What in the restless photographer’s life led to his bloody end? And why did powerful men decide John Evans had to die for the crime? This book explores true-crime events buried for decades. Days of Fear describes in detail St. Petersburg as it existed more than a century ago – a growing waterfront community particularly comfortable for white people but often difficult for Black people. It tells a grim story the authors hope is relevant to the twenty-first century’s periodic mob violence and domestic terrorism.
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by Dan EganThe story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as Egan harrowingly reports, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and "dead zones" in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond.
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by Stetson KennedyStetson Kennedy (1916-2011) was a life-long activist for social justice, environmental stewardship, and the preservation of traditional cultures. He wrote six published books, contributed to dozens of other volumes, and composed thousands of articles as a journalist and freelance essayist. Stetson used acerbic prose, down-home Southern humor, double entendre, and colorful idioms to engage his readers and to skewer those who would malign or exploit others. This book contains mostly unpublished work that includes some of Stetson's writings as a student, letters to newspaper editors; personal correspondence and essays about civil rights and racism, the preservation of traditional cultures, the environment, political theory, and forced labor. There is a section containing selections of his short stories, poems, and quotes.
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by Diane Roberts
A sweeping story of Florida told through eight generations of family history. Part family memoir, part political commentary, part apologia, Dream State tells the grand and sometimes crazy story of Florida through the eyes of one of its native daughters. |
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by Randy Jaye Prohibition is recognized as the most unpopular law in US history. It was so unpopular at the time that some Floridians weren't all too keen on obeying it. Learn how it was instigated by small town Protestants who believed that newer immigrants living in big cities were immoral because of their emphatic use of alcohol. Prohibition bred corruption, defiance of the law, and hypocrisy as illegal bootlegging, moonshining and rum running replaced legitimate taxpaying industries. Florida actually voted state-wide Prohibition into law before the dreaded 18th amendment and was the only state to elect a governor from the Prohibition Party. Florida's Bill McCoy "The Real McCoy" founded Rum Row and became an international celebrity as he made a mockery of the U.S. Coast Guard's inability to squelch his innovative rum running operations. Al Capone, the infamous gangster, vacationed in Florida while his henchmen perpetrated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Many virtually unknown stories of tragic killings in Florida during Prohibition are also recounted. |
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Florida Vegetarian Cookbookby Dalia ColonWith delicious recipes that showcase Florida's bounty of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains, this book celebrates the seasonal harvests of the Sunshine State. With year-round harvests and incredible seasonal variety of crops, Florida offers a wealth of homegrown foods that make it easy to cook local and fresh. Food journalist Dalia Colón is your guide to discovering flavorful dishes that showcase Florida's bounty of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains. The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook includes more than 100 recipes using local ingredients as distinctive as oranges, tomatoes, and watermelon and as interesting as sugarcane, peanuts, cabbage, squash, and cantaloupe. Colón recipes are accompanied by 12 essays that offer the stories behind some of Florida's most cherished food traditions.
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Florida's Historic Capitol Building by Tiffany BakerBetween 1824 and 1840, Florida's government functioned out of several log cabins and rented rooms in the newly established territorial capital of Tallahassee. In 1839, the federal government gave $20,000 to construct a permanent capitol building; the bones of the structure were laid by enslaved craftsmen. The first session took place in 1841, and additional funds requested each year ensured the capitol was complete when Florida entered the Union as the 27th state on March 3, 1845. Over the years, four significant capitol expansions reflected the needs of a growing state until a new and modern Capitol Complex, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, was completed in 1977. The aging former capitol was slated for demolition until the people of Florida spoke out in a successful campaign to save the historic building and restore it to its 1902 appearance.
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Hidden History of Amelia Islandby Jeff SuwakBeneath the sands and cobblestones of Amelia Island lies a richness of history disproportionate to the location's relatively small size. The bones of this place are composed of pirate treasures literal and metaphorical, remnants of ancient Timucuan Indians, a grim role in the illegal slave trade, tales of bravery and madness, and a scene for the triumph of the human spirit. Eight different flags have flown over Amelia Island. It was an important stage in the 1812 Patriot War, which most people have long forgotten. From Gregor MacGregor to Abraham Lincoln Lewis, characters strange and inspiring have left their mark in this island's psychic currents. Dead in some ways, they're still here in others, etched into the land itself and waiting to be discovered.
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Hidden History of Walt Disney World by Foxx NolteMillions of people a year visit Walt Disney World, but few would consider it to be a place with any real history. But hidden just below the surface, past the blanket of pixie dust, is a story as vivid and bizarre as any. It is a history of corporate politics, urban planning, crazy ambitions, and failed schemes. The Hidden History of Walt Disney World takes you on a journey that stretches from "Old Florida" to the events that made Walt Disney World what it is today. There's birds made of citrus, horizontal elevators, a ghost town, and tennis ball factories. And that's just the start. Whether you've visited one or one hundred times, your vacation will never be the same again. Yep, the castle is fake. But the stories are not .
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by Vicki SokolikThey hide in plain sight. They survive on free school breakfasts and lunches, join school sports teams in order to shower, sleep on friends' couches, in parks, or on the streets. Their official designation is "unaccompanied homeless youth"--they are not "runaways" breaking free from strict parenting; these are kids seeking safety. They have escaped abusive parents, have been abandoned, or have never had a home to begin with. When Vicki Sokolik's son brought home a classmate who was living on her own and was dropping out of school to support herself, Vicki stepped in to help. As she learned more about the invisible population of young people navigating life alone, she discovered the countless ways they are overlooked and impeded by the system. She founded a nonprofit and worked to change legislation in her home state of Florida to give these kids agency over their lives.
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Jews of South Florida by Andrea GreenbaumWhen we think of Jewish South Florida, we may think first of the generation of aging Jews who moved to South Beach from the 1940s to the 1970s to create a rich Yiddish culture on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet these "snowbirds" are just one group in what has become an increasingly diverse South Florida Jewish population. The tri-county area of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach is home to a community of more than 625,000 Jews---about --10 percent of American Jews--and comprises nearly 200 congregations, 3 major Jewish federations, 20 Hebrew day schools, a world-recognized Holocaust memorial, and more. Yet no single book offers an overview of this vital Jewish community. The South Florida Jewish community is distinguished from other Jewish communities in the U.S. by its diverse population.
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by David Rahahe-tih Webb In the 1700s, as Florida’s Indigenous tribes were displaced, the forebears of the Miccosukee and Seminole descended along the southwestern Gulf Coast. They soon began working with Hispanic and Indigenous fishermen from various Spanish colonies, who had seasonal operations along the barrier islands. Eventually these seasonal operations became prolific year-round fisheries and communities, incorporating the fishing practices previously learned from the 6,000-year-old Calusa culture. Their productive estuarine fisheries were called ranchos, which served the same significant commercial and cultural function that the deerskin trade did for their contemporaries. The author, David Rahahe-tih Webb, is adding to our understanding of the ranchos, writing from the perspective of a descendant. His direct ancestor, Juan Montes de Oca and his family, belonged to the Spanish Seminole rancho communities. |
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Sunshine State Mafia : a History of Florida's Mobsters, Hit Men, and Wise Guysby Doug KellyInside accounts and little-known stories of criminal networks in Florida's past, a vivid, wild ride through a century of Mafia lore, this book tells stories of organized crime rings that have settled in Florida and made the state their base of operations for bootlegging, gambling, extortion, money laundering, and drug running. Sunshine State Mafia divulges the hidden history of the mob from the Keys to Pensacola and Jacksonville. Featuring Al Capone and crime rings in Miami and South Florida, the Trafficante family in Tampa, Harlan Blackburn and his gambling empire in Orlando, and many more individuals both infamous and little-known, this book explains how and why mob bosses from northern states came to Florida in the early 1900s--they saw the state as a respite from cold weather and a good place to evade law enforcement. The cast of characters in these stories includes cops, sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, and politicians who took bribes or even conspired with criminals. |
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Swamp Monsters: Trump vs. DeSantis: the Greatest Show on Earth (or at Least in Florida)by Matt DixonRon DeSantis was struggling through Florida's political wilderness when, in late 2017, Donald Trump extended his hand. In Swamp Monsters, veteran Florida journalist and NBC News senior national politics reporter Matt Dixon pulls back the curtain on the titanic clash between a one-time kingmaker and a would-be king, showing how the battle between Trump and DeSantis has escalated, how it might end-and what it will mean for the country.
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Tracing Florida Journeys: Explorers, Travelers, and Landscapes Then and Now by Leslie Kemp PooleIn this book, Leslie Poole delves into the stories of explorers and travelers who came to Florida during the past five centuries, looking at their words and the paths they took from the perspective of today. Discover Florida's unique places across time through writings from history How has Florida's land changed across five centuries? What has stayed the same, and what remains only in memory? In Tracing Florida Journeys, Leslie Poole delves into the stories of well-known explorers and travelers who came to the peninsula and wrote about their experiences, looking at their words and the paths they took from the perspective of today.
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Twas the Night Before Christmas in Floridaby Jo ParryFar, far away at the North Pole, Santa is busy planning his Christmas Eve journey across his favorite place ... Florida. Are you ready for Santa to visit your home?
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by Bill DeYoungThe third volume in the Vintage St. Pete series takes another long, loving, deeply nostalgic look at life in Florida’s fastest-growing city before the dawn of the twenty-first century. These lavishly-illustrated stories will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever called St. Petersburg, or Pinellas County, home.
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Remember the Aquatarium and the London Wax Museum? Did you see the circus or go to concerts at the Bayfront Center? Stroll the Million Dollar Pier or feed the animals at the Boyd Hill Nature Trail Zoo? Watch Ron Howard film Cocoon? VINTAGE ST. PETE affectionately re-visits the people, places and things that made this Florida Gulf Coast city such a colorful, surprising – and oh-so-entertaining – place to live in the 20th Century.
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ON DISPLAY IN THE FLORIDA HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY, 4TH FLOOR OF THE JOHN F. GERMANY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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 Hillsborough State Bank |
Florida Banking Records Collection The Florida Banking Records give insight and context to the history of Florida's economy. They date from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. The records come from several banks of historical significance and include Hillsboro State Bank, Bank of Dunedin, First Savings and Trust Co., and SunBank. The records were stored for several years in a warehouse and were scheduled to be destroyed. In 2014, a SunTrust bank employee asked the Florida History & Genealogy Library if they would accept the donation. In 2021 the library started an in-house preservation project. This includes cleaning, repairing, and cataloging the records.
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Sports in the Burgert Brothers Photographic Collection The video display features photographs of sports in the Tampa Bay area, through the decades. The video looks specifically at baseball, football, golf, tennis and shuffleboard. |
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Sports in Florida Items in the Display Case include Burgert Brothers photographs, books from the library collection, and other memorabilia.
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