Protected in a refrigerator in the St. Augustine Historical Society s research library are 104 glass photographic negatives that tell the story of Lincolnville, the city s historic Black community, in the 1920s.
The photographer, Richard Aloysius Twine, was born in the city on May 11, 1896, and was the youngest of eight children.
Around 1917, Twine left St. Augustine for New York City. We have, through research, found he was living in New York City for several years from about 1917 to 23 or 24, and that would have been right around the time of the Harlem Renaissance, said Bob Nawrocki, St. Augustine Historical Society s chief librarian. So there s a possibility he may have learned to take photographs when he was up there.
In downtown St. Augustine and across the street from what is now Flagler College, the Lightner Building houses city and other government offices, a few retail shops, and one of the country s finest collections of art and historical items.
Founded in 1948 by Chicago-based magazine publisher Otto C. Lightner as the Lightner Museum of Hobbies, the Lightner Museum is home to thousands of varied objects in what was originally Henry Flagler s Alcazar Hotel. It s a fine art collection, it s a decorative art collection, and then we ve got natural history specimens, Museum Executive Director David Bagnall said on Thursday. We even have Victorian musical instruments, so it is a really unique collection that is just incredibly diverse.
But Caldecott s name still lives on children s bookshelves and libraries across the nation.
Fifty-two years after his death, the American Library Association established the Randolph Caldecott Medal in his honor to recognize the previous year s most distinguished American picture book for children. They thought that he was the most logical person to name the medal after. Even though he wasn t an American, and the award only goes to Americans, said Art Boccieri, president of St. Augustine-based Randolph Caldecott Society of America and retired art and reading teacher. He was revered enough that people felt that he was the right person, so they ve been awarding the medal every single year since, Boccieri said. I think Caldecott and the medal are important for our children today because they need to be exposed to good literature and good illustrations.
Jesse Fish s claim to Anastasia Island played out for decades
The Record readers
The battle for Anastasia
There is an epilogue to the story in Monday’s Record about the new Fish Island Park and its progenitor, “that infamous Floridian” Jesse Fish.
In 1795 Jesse Fish received a land grant from the king of Spain that encompassed all of Anastasia Island, save for two small land grants and the “King’s Quarries” for coquina stone, all located near the northern end of the island. After Fish’s death, the controversy over this land grant would cast a dark shadow over legal titles to properties on Anastasia and retard development on the island for years.