New JHS President is longtime history advocate

Newly elected Jacksonville Historical Society President Edward M. Booth Jr., a longtime local history advocate, and a former JHS Vice-President began his term on May 28.

Previously, he lead JHS efforts to save local landmarks through an endangered structures program that garnered considerable media attention. Ed has presented at the JHS Speaker Series on the compelling local story associated with Charles Lindberg’s flight across the Atlantic. He’s also helped rescue many of the area’s aviation documents. During his term, he hopes to encourage individuals to look for rare Jacksonville documents and items “in their attics and closets.” He points to the Lindberg visit as an example and believes there are more photos and film footage that exist.

As a young man, Ed worked with Jacksonville Historical Society Past-President John Ingle in the Laurie Yonge Aviation Society. When the group’s membership dwindled, Ed helped Mr. Ingle save many of the area’s early aviation records and images, now added to Ingle’s aviation collections at the JHS Archives.

Ed’s passion for history and aviation extend to his profession. A partner at the law firm Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., Ed is Board Certified in Aviation Law by The Florida Bar Board of Legal Education and Specialization. He’s served as a member of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority Board of Directors since 2013.

Ed has served as chairman of The Florida Bar Aviation Law Certification Committee, The Florida Bar Aviation Law Committee, and The Florida Bar Grievance Committee, Fourth Judicial Circuit. He was the 2007-8 President of the Lawyer Pilots Bar Association, a 1,200 member international bar association founded in 1959.

Ed frequently speaks at seminars around the country on the management of complex litigation. An adjunct faculty member at Jacksonville University at the Davis College of Business, he lectures on aviation related topics, and he is also a frequent guest commentator of Jacksonville’s WJXT Channel 4 on aviation and air safety. Ed has appeared on the newsmagazine Inside Edition and the Chinese network SZMG TV on recent air disasters.

He is a member of The Florida Bar, the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and is admitted to practice in numerous federal courts. Ed is a 28-year member of the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville, the group that generously created the Gingerbread Extravaganza prototype, now the Jacksonville Historical Society’s largest annual fundraiser. He has served as an advisor to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.

The Kellogg Album

A gem in the Jacksonville Historical Society Archives

This scrapbook of photographs, drawings and embellishments was created by Edward B. Kellogg in the late 1870s. Kellogg was part of the Alvord, Kellogg & Campbell Company, a souvenir shop located at 57 West Bay Street in Jacksonville. The album contains images that were later made into stereographs and sold to Jacksonville tourists at the souvenir shop.

Mr. Kellogg visited St. Augustine in 1877. He likely wanted to see the seventy-two Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho and Caddo Indian prisoners that had been brought to Fort Marion (today Castillo de San Marcos) after the Red River Wars in Oklahoma and Texas.

When the Indian captives arrived at Fort Marion, their hair was cut and they were issued European-style clothing. They were forced to assimilate into the European -American culture. They were taught English and encouraged to produce works of art, later called ledger art, for sale.

After three years of imprisonment, the Indians held at Fort Marion were released to the custody of the Indian Office. Most of them returned to their tribes.

In 2014, the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site contacted the Jacksonville Historical Society to request the use of a photo from the Kellogg Album for their trading card program titled “From Civil War to Civil Rights”. The photo of Medicine Water and his wife, Moshi, who were imprisoned at Fort Marion from 1875 to 1878, completed the series!

"The Jacksonville Historical Society was proud to provide this treasured piece of history," said JHS staff member, Meghan Powell.

To view the trading cards, please visit the NPS Flickr site.

To view the Kellogg Album, please visit Our Collections.

Leah Mary Cox

The exhibit remains open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Old St. Luke’s, 314 Palmetto Street, or phone, 665-0064. The exhibit ends July 30.

JHS Merrill Museum House open for tours!

Our new, excited and energetic volunteer docent team keeps the house open selected days each week.

Take a trip back to Victorian-era Jacksonville with your family, friends or co-workers and learn about one of the most important eras in city history.

Please check the website for available tour days and to reserve your spot.

June 15, 1822: The “established” date by none other than the Jacksonville Historical Society for the founding of Jacksonville. It is known that in early June of the year, Isaiah D. Hart and a group of men at the Cowford laid out the streets of a town, measuring from a bay tree at the river's edge. The first street surveyed was Market Street, followed by Bay Street. An additional twenty blocks were surveyed – the street names resonate with the young nation’s early history as well as the history of the “newly founded” Jacksonville.