Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship Program

The Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship Program was created in 2008 at Florida Southern College (FSC), in Lakeland, to help preserve and digitize citrus collections and memorabilia for inclusion in the State of Florida Citrus Archives held by the McKay Archives. This fellowship program is an opportunity for students to engage with collections about the citrus industry.

Each student is assigned a specific job during their fellowship term, ranging from handling intake of materials to scanning and appropriately cataloging the materials for research purposes and creating special displays. Projects currently underway include:

• Processing and preserving collections like the Waverly Growers Records or the John A. Attaway Papers.
• Scanning and adding select photographs to the Crate Label Database and Citrus Photograph Database.
• Researching and designing physical and digital exhibits about special topics of the Citrus Industry
• Researching and supplementing information on all of the Citrus Hall of Fame inductees.
• Processing and preserving the Lake Avalon Grove Business Proposal manuscript. Conducting research on individual businessmen named in the proposal, photographing the land as it is now, and creating a digital project site with additional components.

The Hall of Fame currently sponsors five permanent fellowship opportunities each semester and one summer fellowship. Four of the fellowships are named after late Hall of Fame members, Frank S. Bouis, John M. Kennedy, Sr., and D. Victor Knight, Sr., along with a fellowship named after the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Students admitted to the program are typically in their junior or senior year and qualify for the program through interviews with faculty members from the Library and Archives. They are supervised by the FSC college archivist in the McKay Archives Center.

To make a donation to help with furthering education in citrus history and preservation efforts of the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame and the State of Florida Citrus Archives, send checks made payable to Florida Southern College, 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, FL 33801 with the memo line to read: FCHOF Fellowship Program. For more information, to donate citrus memorabilia and antique artifacts, or to receive an invitation to Florida Citrus Hall of Fame events, please contact Brenda Eubanks Burnette at 561-351-4314 or [email protected].

Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellows