FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2025 PUBLIC HISTORY FORUM

Doubletree by Hilton, Downtown Orlando

Presenting Partners:
The RICHES Digital Archiving Project
and
Orange County Regional History Center

*****SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14

6:00-9:00 pm

Florida Historical Society Board Meeting (private event)

THURSDAY, MAY 15

8:00-9:00 am

Registration and Bookstore Open/Coffee and Conversation

-

9:00-9:30 am

Welcome!

Ben Brotemarkle, Executive Director, Florida Historical Society

James M. Denham, President, Florida Historical Society

Buddy Dyer, Mayor of Orlando (or a representative)

9:30-10:30 am

“Welcome to Orlando! Tourism before Disney”

Rick Kilby, Author and Managing Editor of the Orange County Regional History Center Magazine “Reflections,”

10:30-10:45 am

Break (Coffee and snacks in Bookstore)

10:45-11:45 am

RICHES Digital Archiving Project: An Overview (panel discussion)

Connie L. Lester, Director of RICHES, Moderator

11:45 am-12:00 pm

Break

12:00-1:15 pm

Florida Historical Society Annual Awards Luncheon

AFTERNOON TOUR

1:30 pm

Bus departs Doubletree Hotel

Our afternoon tour will start at Leu Botanical Gardens, including the Cemetery with David Mizell, Mizell Family Home, then we will travel to the Orange County Regional History Center and tour their Sesquicentennial exhibit “Orlando Collected,” “Behind the Scenes” archive experience, and some “explore on your own” time.

5:00-6:00 pm

Reception at Orange County Regional History Center

6:00 pm

Presentation from Orange County Regional History Center Historian

Rachel Williams in the 1927 courtroom

7:00 pm

Bus returns to DoubleTree Hotel

FRIDAY, MAY 16

8:00-9:00 am

Registration and Bookstore Open/Coffee and Conversation

9:00-10:00 am

Orange County Regional History Center  “Orlando Collaborated: The Process of Community-Driven Curation” (panel discussion)

Azela Santana, Executive Director

Katie Kelley, Curator of Exhibitions

Kallie Turner, Curator of Education

Emily Coughlan, Collections Manager

10:00-10:15 am

Break (Coffee and snacks in Bookstore)

10:15-11:15 am

RICHES Digital Archiving Project Case Study: The Roots of Entrepreneurship in the Parramore Community (panel discussion)

Connie L. Lester, Director of RICHES, Moderator

11:15-11:30 am

Break

11:30 am-12:30 pm

The Jack Kerouac House

Maurice O’Sullivan, author and Professor Emeritus, Rollins College, Moderator

Bob Kealing, author Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends

12:30-1:30 pm

Box Lunch on site at hotel

AFTERNOON TOUR

1:30 pm

Bus departs Doubletree Hotel

Our afternoon tour will include stops at: Jack Kerouac House, Pulse Memorial, Greenwood Cemetery and the Wells’Built Museum of African American History & Culture

5:00 pm

Bus returns to DoubleTree Hotel

6:00-7:00 pm

Reception with live music, hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at DoubleTree Hotel

7:00-9:00 pm

FHS Banquet with Service Awards

James E. C. Perry, former Florida Supreme Court Justice “Witnessing History and Making History” in conversation with Dr. Ben Brotemarkle

SATURDAY, MAY 17

8:00-9:00 am

Registration and Bookstore Open/Coffee and Conversation

9:00-10:00 am

Leslie Kemp Poole, author and Associate Professor, Rollins College

“Tracing Florida Journeys: Explorers, Travelers, and Landscapes Then and Now”

10:00-10:15 am

Break

10:15-11:45 am

New Voices in Florida History Scholarship

Andrew Kishuni, University of Central Florida graduate student

“The Color of Disease: Race, Science, Pandemic Influenza, and the Rise of Epidemiology in the Segregated South”

Adaeze Nwigwe, University of Central Florida graduate student

“The American Dream as Envisioned by the National Urban Leage in Tampa”

Sebastian Garcia and John Lancaster, University of Central Florida graduate students

“Performing Public History: Representing the Memory of Negro Fort Through Podcasting”

11:45 am- 12:00 pm

Break

12:00-1:00 pm

Closing Roundtable Discussion: Hidden Central Florida History

Joy Dickinson, author and journalist

Ben Brotemarkle, author and FHS Executive Director

Maurice J. O’Sullivan, author and Professor Emeritus, Rollins College

1:00 pm

Goodbye and Lunch on Your Own