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Mandarin Museum News
February 2025
Embrace the Mandarin Experience
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FL Blue's ASPIRE team, our 2024 and 2025 sponsors of
Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin
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Dear Friends,
I'm sure the recent frigid temperatures across Northeast Florida were necessary for some reason or another. If you're like me, though, you're absolutely elated that warmer weather has returned. It is the perfect time to visit Mandarin Museum, and we have a February full of events to welcome you!
The ever popular Mandarin Frog Painting is back and happening on the first Saturday of every month. The Maple Leaf Divers will be here too. If you're a music lover, you won't want to miss Music Under the Oaks this Sunday. And our Spring Third Thursday Lecture Series begins on - you guessed it - the third Thursday of this month.
February is also Black History Month, established in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson and The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Black History Month began as Negro History Week, and expanded to a full month in 1976 to mark its 50th anniversary. This year's theme provided by ASALH is African Americans and Labor, "focusing on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people."
We encourage you to attend our 2nd Annual Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin event on Saturday, February 22nd. Throughout the Museum and Walter Jones Historical park, exhibits, special presentations, and tours will be focused on sharing the stories of Mandarin's historic Black communities, including the ways that work and working of all kinds shaped the Black experience. Of special note, Michael A. Allen, retired National Park Service and Community Partnership Specialist, will be visiting from South Carolina to present "Hidden in Plain Sight: The Building of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor." Allen played a central role in the Corridor's founding, working to earn official designation by Congress in 2006. All details for this and other events appear later in this newsletter. So, be sure to read on and mark your calendars.
And as always, I'll see you at the Museum!
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----Brittany Cohill
----Executive Director
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Evolution in Clay: A Vina Schemer Retrospective
On display through April 19, 2025
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First Saturday @ the Museum
Saturday, February 1
10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Join Mandarin Museum the first Saturday of every month from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm when all historic buildings throughout Walter Jones Historical Park will be open to the public.
The young and young at heart can pick up a free scavenger hunt at Museum Guest Services to complete as you visit the museum's exhibits and stroll along the park's paved pathways.
Learn more about the area's 19th-century past as museum volunteers greet you at the 1898 St. Joseph's Mission Schoolhouse for African American Children, the 1892 Losco Winery, the 1876 Barn, and the 1875 Webb-Jones Farmhouse.
The historic Mandarin Store & Post Office, located just down the road at 12471 Mandarin Rd., will also be open to visitors.
Admission is free.
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Mandarin Frog Painting
Saturday, February 1
10:00 am
Museum Front Lawn
Mandarin Frog Painting is back! Purchase, paint, and take home your very own Mandarin Frog (or sea turtle). The cost is $22 per person and all supplies are provided. Advanced registration is required, payment is due upon arrival to the event. To register, please email info@mandarinmuseum.org.
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Meet the Maple Leaf Divers
Saturday, February 1
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
Maple Leaf Shipwreck Gallery
Meet the men who dove the Maple Leaf Shipwreck! In the early morning hours of April 1, 1864, the Union steamboat Maple Leaf was sunk by Confederates in the St. Johns River just off Mandarin Point. For 120 years, the ship's cargo hold remained undisturbed and preserved beneath the surface of the muddy riverbed. In the 1980s, Dr. Keith Holland and his team of divers located and excavated the site. Now designated a National Historic Landmark, the nearly 3,000 artifacts they recovered have been entrusted to the State of Florida for preservation. Mandarin Museum displays many of these artifacts through a longterm partnership with the State Archives of Florida.
Dr. Holland and the Maple Leaf Divers will be in the gallery from 10:00 am to noon on Saturday, February 1st to meet with visitors. This is an informal, coversational-style event. Drop in to hear their story of discovery, recovery, and preservation.
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Music Under the Oaks
Sunday, February 2
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Museum Front Lawn
The forecast is a beautiful 73 degrees and sunny! Join Mandarin Museum and North Florida Folk Network for an afternoon of music under Mandarin's historic oak canopy. Bring your acoustic instrument and a song to share as part of this community jam session. Listeners are most welcome to attend! Bring a chair or blanket, set up outside the song circle, and enjoy!
Mandarin Museum and the 1898 Schoolhouse will be open to visitors during the event. Admission is free.
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Third Thursday Lecture
Author Jonathan Rich
Thursday, February 20
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Mandarin Community Club
12447 Mandarin Rd.
Author Jonathan Rich will present 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. Signed copies of Spires in the Sun will be available for purchase at the lecture.
This Third Thursday Lecture is presented by Mandarin Museum & Historical Society in partnership with and held at the Mandarin Community Club, located at 12447 Mandarin Road.
Special thanks to St. John’s Cathedral Bookstore & Gift Shop and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.
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Thank you to Endless Summer Roofing Co. for generously sponsoring our Spring 2025 Third Thursday Lecture Series! | |
Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin
Saturday, February 22
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Throughout Mandarin Museum and Walter Jones Historical Park
Celebrating Black History Month 2025, Mandarin Museum is pleased to partner with FL Blue's ASPIRE Employee Resource Group to present the 2nd Annual Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin!
The public is invited to:
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View Mandarin Museum’s permanent exhibits, including The Untold Story of Black Mandarin
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Visit our historic buildings, including the 1898 St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African American Children
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At 12:00 pm, attend a very special presentation in the 1898 Schoolhouse.
Michael A. Allen, National Park Service (Retired), will present “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Building of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.”
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Allen will share his journey working with Gullah Geechee communities, grassroots organizations, and national, state, and local partners to create the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, officially designated by Congress in 2006 through the National Heritage Areas Act. He will also share his views on the pathway forward for the Gullah Geechee communities, culture, legacy, and people. | | |
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Visit our community partners on the Museum’s front lawn including the Jacksonville Public Library Special Collections and Memory Lab, Gullah Historian Elaine Jackson Ford, Greg Estevez, author of Edisto: Migration to Florida, and the Duval County Master Gardeners.
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At 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, the Duval County Master Gardeners will lead a Black horticulture-centric tour of Walter Jones Historical Park, meet at the Butterfly Garden alongside Mandarin Museum
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- Museum docents will be available throughout the exhibits and park, welcoming visitors and providing historical interpretation
Thank you to FL Blue's ASPIRE team for making Exhibit Come to Life: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin possible!
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New in the Museum Shop! We've added new items and restocked popular ones. Buy for yourself or gift to your friends and family books, posters, buttons, and more that help us share our mission beyond the museum and park!
Are you a MUSEUM NERD just like us? Well, we got you covered! Live your nerdy life to the fullest with our new MUSEUM NERD buttons, stickers, and magnets. The stickers are high quality -- perfect to stick on your laptop, water bottle, car window, skateboard, etc.
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Back in stock: Kathy Stark's The Wilderness of North Florida's Parks. This updated edition features 120+ full-color pages AND a fold-out map showing all the parks, preserves, conservation areas, and forests where you can get a 'sense of wilderness,' all in the Jacksonville area. Our very own Walter Jones Historical Park is included. Get yours today and check out the family-friendly resources in the back and the index of parks you can use to check off where you've been! | |
New on the shelf: Posters from Kathy Stark's series of Work Projects Administration (WPA) inspired posters of our wilderness park system right here in Jacksonville. These archival fine art prints on acid-free matt paper are signed by the artist and measure 20" x 14". Currently in stock in the Museum Shop are posters with ties to Mandarin's story, including St. Johns River Creatures, Kingsley Plantation, and Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve. | |
Joining our other Dan Schafer titles in the shop: Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World: Slave Trader, Plantation Owner, Emancipator. Not many know Zephaniah Kingsley's life had a direct impact on the Mandarin community in the 19th century. You can learn all about it in our permanent exhibits: The Untold Story of Black Mandarin and The Maple Leaf Shipwreck. While you're here, pick up your copy of Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World AND the companion book Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner. | For more on Dr. Dan Schafer, check out Matt Soergel's 2018 piece published in the Florida Times-Union. | |
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We've acquired several important and exciting pieces for our permanent historical and art collections recently, but you'll have to wait for a future newsletter to hear about those!
In the meantime, please join us in welcoming our Spring 2025 intern from the University of North Florida's Department of History, Myah Monix. Myah is in her junior year and plans to graduate in May 2026 with her bachelor's degree in history. During her time with us, Myah will assist with various digitizing, indexing, and research projects in our archives. You may also see her in the galleries helping with exhibit maintenance and updates or out in the park with our field trip groups. If you see Myah, be sure to say hello!
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Mandarin Frog Painting
Saturday, March 1
10:00 am
Museum Front Lawn
Purchase, paint, and take home your very own Mandarin Frog (or turtle). The cost is $22 per person and advanced registration is required. To register, email info@mandarinmuseum.org.
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Be a supporter of arts & culture in our community through the purchase of an annual membership! Benefits at the individual, family, and patron levels include free guided walking tours of Walter Jones Historical Park, reciprocal benefits at other museums across the nation, discounts in our Museum Shop, and more!
Every contribution made through the purchase of an annual membership enables us to fulfill our mission!
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Mandarin Museum members at the Family Level and above automatically enjoy the benefits of NARM (North American Reciprocal Museum Association)! By supporting your favorite museum, you receive reciprocal member benefits at almost 1,500 museums, botanical gardens, aquariums, and more across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and The Cayman Islands. Simply show your Mandarin Museum membership card at participating locations! | |
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Mandarin Newsline
Read 2025 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.
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...spend some quality time with your friends and neighbors!
Recently, artist Vina Schemer (pictured center) gave a private gallery tour to her friends from The Coves at River Garden. What an incredible and unique experience it was listening in on Vina - who turns 90 this year! - talk about her inspiration, techniques, and the little stories and personal anecdotes attached to each piece she created during her decades-long career.
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More ways to stay up-to-date! | | |
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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.
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OUR MISSION: Mandarin Museum & Historical Society shares the stories of Mandarin's history, culture, and natural resources by providing engaging programs that educate, entertain, and inspire.
VISIT. JOIN. VOLUNTEER.
Mandarin Museum & Historical Society
904-268-0784
info@mandarinmuseum.org
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