Mandarin Museum News

February 2024

Embrace the Mandarin Experience

L to R: Paul Landry, Rosamond Warren Allen, Brenda Councill. Photo courtesy of Olis Garber.

----Warmest regards,

----Brittany Cohill

----Executive Director

All Month During Museum Hours Every Wednesday-Saturday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Stop by and enter for a chance to win a Mandarin Frog family handcrafted by Mandarin's own Don "Frogman" Bowden. It is free to enter, only one entry per person. The lucky winner will be drawn at the end of February.

*Mandarin Frog Painting will resume on Saturday, March 2nd

First Saturday @ the Museum

Saturday, February 3

10:00 am to 2:00 pm

All historic buildings throughout Walter Jones Historical Park will be open to the public. Stroll along the park's paved pathways and stop in to the 1898 St. Joseph's Mission Schoolhouse for African American Children, the 1892 Losco Winery, the 1876 Barn, and the 1875 Webb-Jones Farmhouse. Admission is free.

Meet the Maple Leaf Divers

Saturday, February 3

10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Maple Leaf Shipwreck Gallery

Meet the men who dove the Maple Leaf Shipwreck! This is an informal, conversational-style event. Drop in anytime between 10:00 am and noon to hear about their story of discovery, recovery, and preservation of artifacts from the Union steamboat Maple Leaf that was sunk by a Confederate mine off Mandarin Point in the St. Johns River.

Music Under the Oaks

Sunday, February 4 (weather permitting)

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Museum Front Lawn

Join Mandarin Museum and North Florida Folk Network for an afternoon under Mandarin's historic oak canopy. Bring your acoustic instrument and join the jam session OR bring your chair or blanket and enjoy a day in the shade, taking in the melodic sounds.

Mandarin Museum and the 1898 Schoolhouse will be open to visitors during the event. Admission is free.

Photo courtesy of Olis Garber.

Open Studio with Brenda Councill

Friday - Sunday, February 2-4 and 9-11

10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Mandarin Store & Post Office

12471 Mandarin Road

Photo courtesy of Olis Garber.

Mandarin Museum is pleased to continue Open Studio with Brenda Councill, Friday through Sunday, the first two weekends in February. Visit the historic Mandarin Store & Post Office to see and interact with Brenda as she puts the final touches on her newest work, "Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin." The finished piece will be a life-size bronze sculpture of Harriet and two young boys from her orange grove. Emphasizing Harriet's commitment to equitable education, she is portrayed in an instructing manner. Don't miss the opportunity to see it before it heads to the foundry in mid-February!

Admission to Open Studio with Brenda Councill is free. Limited edition prints of Brenda's popular Mandarin series will be available for purchase. All proceeds support "Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin" and its eventual installation in Walter Jones Historical Park.

Thank you to those who have committed their support to making "Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin" a reality.

Orange Blossoms | $25,000 - $34,999

Rosamond Warren Allen

in honor of her great-great grandmother, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Mandarin Oaks | $10,000 - $24,999

Rosemary McCorkle

Thomas Davant Johns, Ph.D. and Gretchen Schaef Johns, M.D.

in memory of Thomas Joseph Agee

in honor of Sandy Arpen

Magnolias | $2500 - $9,999

Cheryl S. Cummer

Larry and Emily Lisska

Eric and Naomi Gillis

Sandy and Tracey Arpen

Colonel John T. and Judith Winkler

George Ash and Kate Arpen

Patrick Plumlee and Laura D'Alisera

in memory of their parents

Marilyn Carpenter

in memory of Pete Carpenter

Don and Pam Chandler

Janelle and Bill Watson

Friends of Historic Mandarin | up to $2499

Bhide & Hall Architects

Pam Neumann

in memory of Dave Neumann and Ed Ralph

Deborah Harmon

Jim and Renee Waler

Jay Caffey

Vincent Ferrigno

Mr. and Mrs. James M. Barker, IV

Virginia B. Barker

Peggy and Bill Armstrong

Byron and Marsha Peacock

Carol and Jeff Anderson

Claire King

Jeff and Carrie Councill

Bonny Councill

Pam Neumann

in honor of Carolyn Hall and Bettye Stilley

Bettye Stilley

in honor of Pam Neumann and Carolyn Hall

Gabriele Dempsey

in memory of Ruth Heerling

Leslie Anderson

Stacy Anderson

Evalyn Campbell

John and Kathleen Holler

Payson J. Tilden

Thomas Entenza

Friends of Gabriele Dempsey in her honor

Courtenay Wilson

Lynn McManus

Ruth Stein

Marilyn Stein

Margaret Gellatly

Blair Woolverton

Renate Hixon

Third Thursday Lecture

Thursday, February 15

6:30 - 8:00 pm

Mandarin Community Club

12447 Mandarin Road

As part of our spring 2024 lecture series, "Our Mandarin Neighbors," Mandarin residents Irene Jaffa and her son, Andrew Jaffa, will share their family's harrowing story of Holocaust survival, immigration, and building a life in the United States. Refreshments begin at 6:30. The program begins at 7:00.

February's presentation is in partnership with The LJD Jewish Family & Community Services and Mandarin Community Club.

A special thank you to our generous sponsors for making "Our Mandarin Neighbors" possible!

Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin

Saturday, February 24

10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Throughout the Museum and Park

Weed Wrangle

Saturday, February 24

9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Throughout the Park

Help us rid Walter Jones Historical Park of invasive camphor seedlings, coral ardisia, and miles of vines! We will have water and breakfast bars available for all volunteers. The City of Jacksonville will provide large loppers. Please bring smaller pruning clippers/saws. Dress appropriately to protect yourself -- gloves, long pants and sleeves, socks, and outdoor/gardening shoes. Meet in the parking lot. For more information and to RSVP, please contact Museum Board Member Gabriele Dempsey, gdkjax@gmail.com.

For the past 11 years, he has been the managing partner of Murphy and Ellis, PLLC.

When not in the office or at the Museum, James enjoys spending time with Brenda and their two children.

James looks forward to contributioning to our continued success!

We have rolled out our 2024 membership program with new benefits at the individual, family, and patron levels! Every contribution made through the purchase of an annual membership enables us to fulfill our mission.

New titles that share the stories of Mandarin's history, culture, and natural resources will be hitting the Museum Shop shelves throughout the month. Pick one up on your next visit!

In this revised and expanded edition of Anna Kingsley’s remarkable life story, Daniel Schafer draws on new discoveries to prove true the longstanding rumors that Anna Madgigine Jai was originally a princess from the royal family of Jolof in Senegal. Captured from her homeland in 1806, she became first an American slave, later a slaveowner, and eventually a central figure in a free black community. Anna Kingsley’s story adds a dramatic chapter to the history of the South, the state of Florida, and the African diaspora.

Daniel L. Schafer is professor emeritus of history and University Distinguished Professor at the University of North Florida. He is the author of several books, including Thunder on the River: The Civil War in Northeast Florida (also available in the Mandarin Museum shop!).

Florida is renowned for its beautiful beaches, natural springs, and subtropical wilderness, but it is widely joked that the official bird should be the construction crane. Dredge-and-fill projects, air pollution, and pesticides spread so uncontrollably during the twentieth century that they sparked an environmental movement within the state, and those who led the fight were very often women.

Leslie Kemp Poole is an associate professor of environmental studies at Rollins College. A fourth-generation Floridian, Poole has long been interested in the role of women in the state’s environmental movement and how they were saving the state’s important natural resources even before they were able to vote.

Mandarin Frog Painting

Saturday, March 2

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Museum Front Lawn

Join us for the first Mandarin Frog Painting event in 2024 on Saturday, March 2nd at 10:00 am. Pick, paint, and take home your very own Mandarin Frog (or turtle or squirrel). Advanced registration is required by emailing info@mandarinmuseum.org. The cost is $22, payable upon arrival.

Mandarin Newsline





Read 2023 and 2024 current and past issues of the Mandarin Newsline online now!

This free newspaper allows Mandarin Museum to share history, events, and programs with the public. The newspaper remains free to readers due to the robust local advertising. Please visit, shop, and eat at those businesses who support the community in this way.

...think of the ways in which you are a part of Mandarin's story!

Nan Ramey, pictured left with artist Brenda Councill, taught at Greenland Pines throughout the 1980s. While there, she commissioned Brenda to illustrate a coloring book on Mandarin's history. Nan brought Brenda's original drawings to Open Studio and has donated them to the Mandarin Museum archives. In a full-circle moment, Brenda is holding her 40-year-old illustration of Harriet Beecher Stowe sitting among local school children.

Thank you to all our community partners!

Mandarin Museum is funded, in part, through the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and the City of Jacksonville.