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PRESIDENT'S PEN
September 2015
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September has arrived and yet again has caught me off guard. How quickly the summer seems to end. As I become more familiar with the day to day workings of our organization, I've begun to understand the power of the individual member. How important is your membership to the Southeast Volusia Historical Society?
Consider that every member and volunteer in our organization all started with the simple decision to join. Someone reached out to them about the importance of our organization and asked them. What a simple and ultimately important action this ends up being. The willingness to talk with someone about our organization and simply ask them to be "a part of", turns out to be one of the most important steps that any member can take.
Dedicated volunteers are working now to prepare and send our annual membership renewals. Please don't forget how important the simple step of processing your membership renewal is.
Also, this year take the time to talk with at least one person that is not a member. Tell them about our incredible New Smyrna Museum of History. You will be surprised how many people in our area have never visited and have no idea what we actually represent to the community. Every new member we attract will be just as important as you, and will represent the future of our organization.
Thank you again for all that you do as individuals serving our wonderful cause.
Greg Holbrook, President
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Museum hours:
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Tuesday ~ Saturday
Admission by donation.
120 Sams Avenue
New Smyrna Beach
386-478-0052
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TEXT: MUSEUM to 42828
to join our mailing list.
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| "Postcard Images of America" Help Requested |
You've seen their books in almost every bookstore, museum, and gift shop across the country. Now
Arcadia Publishing
and museum Executive Director Robert Redd are working together on a postcard history of New Smyrna Beach.
Scheduled for a 2016 release, this book will showcase the history of our city through the use of historic postcards. Text captions will accompany each entry.
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STAY CONNECTED
See our reviews:
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Sestercentennial Celebration 2018
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| I know it's hard to believe but New Smyrna Beach will be celebrating its 250th birthday in 2018! That's right in 1768 the Smyrnea Settlement became active with over 1,250 Minorcans, Greeks, and others. Despite the difficulties they encountered and the ultimate failure of the settlement New Smyrna Beach is today a thriving and prosperous city. In 2018 the New Smyrna Museum of History is going to help produce an event to commemorate our long history here. While we have a committee chair and have had a couple of brainstorming sessions it's time to really start the planning. Would you like to be a part of this committee and help bring one of the biggest events ever to New Smyrna Beach? Whether you are a leader, a follower or a bit of both we need you and your ideas. If you would like to be a part please contact Robert at the museum. He will gather and pass along your contact information so that you can be kept up to date on future planning meetings. Let's make our Sestercentennial an event that is talked about for years to come! |
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WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Friendship Force of East Central Florida
Memberships can be purchased
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| Volunteer of the Month ~ Cornelia Austin |
 Volunteer of the Month Cornelia Austin can regularly be found working the front desk at the museum. While she doesn't have a regular day she works she fills in where needed, often times several days a week. A native of Charleston, South Carolina she moved to New Smyrna Beach in 1962. Cornelia retired after a career with the Volusia County School Board, including working at Coronado Beach Elementary.
In addition to working the desk Cornelia has helped with events such as Museum on Main Street, Night at the Museum and more. Currently she is serving on a committee that is reworking the volunteer information binders and developing training ideas for all volunteers. She has also helped promote the museum at off-site events like a recent one at the Marine Discovery Center.
Cornelia is a member of the
Jane Sheldon Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), where she serves as Recording Secretary, and also enjoys genealogy. That interest is part of how she came to be an important part of the museum volunteer team. She came here looking for more information about her family history. Three years later she is still learning every time she comes in. Her favorite part of volunteering is all the great people she has had the opportunity to meet, whether it be other volunteers or visitors. She wants to thank everybody for the welcome and friendship she has received here.
After starting to volunteer here, Cornelia learned that her husband Ronnie and historical society Treasurer Drew Mays had become friends through playing golf. New Smyrna Beach can sometimes still be a small town!
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| History Book Club Friday, September 11 ~ 1pm |
Local author Sally Wright Bayles has just published her second book,
Let Me Be Singing: A Legacy of Memories
. We will be hosting a book reading being done by Sally and hope you can attend. Sally and her husband Ron have lived an exciting life and this wonderful book contains many of those memories all in easy to read short vignettes. Books will be on hand for purchase and signing. Sponsored by Hottie Coffee.
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Pet Adoption Day
Saturday, September 12
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We are proud to host
Edgewater Animal Shelter
sponsored by Volusia Society for Aid to Animals for an adoption and supply drive. Be sure to stop by the museum and meet your new best friend! The shelter will also be collecting much needed supplies as they seek to find homes for these wonderful animals. Pick up a shirt, get your picture taken at the kissing booth, enter the raffle, adopt your new best buddy and help make a better life for these animals. It will make you feel better helping them out!
Adopt a pet and receive
25% off in the museum gift shop. Make a supply donation and receive 15% in the gift shop. Donations are already being accepted if you can't make it on the 12th.
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| Community Museum Meeting Thursday, September 17, 6:30pm |
|  Ethel Cook-Wilson will discuss Bethune-Volusia Beach. Before the large and expensive houses were built along this part of southern New Smyrna Beach, Mary McLeod Bethune and fellow investors purchased land in this area to be an area where African-Americans could enjoy the beach free of the segregationist practices in place elsewhere in Volusia County. Ms. Cook-Wilson will have copies of her book Isn't That God's Water? The Advent and Demise of Bethune-Volusia Beach Incorporated available for purchase and signing.
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Plans are b
eing made
for Night at the Museum 2015! This event was a huge succe
ss last year and this year promises to be even bigger and better. The theme for this year is going to be
"Brews and the Blues"
. There will be plenty of great food, drinks, live entertainment and a live auction.
Make your plans to be at the museum on Friday night, October 2 from
6-9 pm. Tickets are available at the museum and will cost $30. Sponsorship packages are still available.
Event Sponsors
Auction Donors
Food and Drink Providers
Entertainment
Cyndi Fraser
If you are interested in helping with planning and preparing for Night at the Museum, if you would like to be a corporate sponsor, or are interested in donating to our auction please contact Robert at the museum for further details. He can be reached at 386-478-0052.
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| History Book Club Wednesday, October 7, 1pm |
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Join local historian Louise B. Caccamise as she
discusses her book
Memory Lane: A History of the Street Names of Deland. Anybody who has ever lived or visited Deland surely has a questions that will be answered in this presentation.
Refreshments provided by Hottie Coffee. |
| Community Museum Meeting Thursday, October 15, 6:30pm |
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Florida in World War II: Floating Fortress will be the subject of a presentation by Dr. Nick Wynne. Dr. Wynne is the author  of nearly twenty books. He is a past Executive Director of the Florida Historical Society. Copies of several of his books will be available for purchase and signing. |
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Captain Charles H. Coe History
Monday, November 2, 2015 ~
1:30pm
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Andrew Morris Foster, the great grandson of Captain Charles H. Coe, will be giving a presentation on the life of this newspaper man, author, genealogist, researcher, naturalist, explorer, amateur archaeologist & activist. Coe was the author of Red Patriots: Story of the Seminoles. Coe also authored the pamphlet Debunking the Spanish Mission, where he directly, and successfully, took on the story that the sugar mill in New Smyrna Beach was a mission. Mr. Foster is the custodian of a large archive of Coe family artifacts and letters. He will be bringing some of these treasures for us to see! Coe's father William Henry Coe is buried in Edgewater-New Smyrna Cemetery. Mr. Foster has recently had a headstone installed for the elder Coe. Andrew has also generously donated copies of many items that are now included in the Sheldon Research Library.
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History Book Club
Thursday, November 12, 2015 ~
1pm
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Dr. Ashley N. Robertson, Curator and Museum Director for the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation/National Historic Landmark at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach and Assistant Professor of History at BCU, will be on hand to discuss her new book Mary McLeod Bethune in Florida:
Bringing Social Justice to the Sunshine State. Dr. Robertson received her Ph.D. from
 Howard University. Ms. Bethune left a large imprint on our area and this promises to be a fun and interesting presentation. You don't want to miss it. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Sponsored by our friends at The History Press and Hottie Coffee.
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| Community Museum Meeting Monday, November 19, 6:30pm |
 Popular local speaker James "Zach" Zacharias will be entertaining us with a presentation on Lost Roadside Attractions. Have you ever heard of Bongoland? Well, it's now the Sugar Mill Gardens in Port Orange. Places like this and many others will be discussed. Zach is the Senior Curator of Education and Curator of History at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. |
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