Florida Citrus Archives

Growing slowly over many years, Professor Mack's collection of citrus-related materials formed the basis of an archives unique to the field of citrus. 

In 1988, the inclusion of a special room to house the collection in the Jack Berry Citrus Building brought about more rapid growth.  The Thomas B. Mack Citrus Archives became the official archives of several citrus organizations over the next fourteen years.

As of May 4th, 2001, the State of Florida declared the Thomas B. Mack Citrus Archives collection to be the official archives of the Florida citrus industry. And now we have moved into larger quarters to serve our patrons better.

Florida Southern College generously donated an antique home on the campus to be the new home of the Florida Citrus Archives.  Work was begun raising the money to renovate the house, and to date, we have received many contributions.  We still need contributions to cover the cost of needed upgrades of our equipment, however the renovation of the house is complete now.

We moved in during the first part of June, and our Open House as held on Wednesday, June 19, 2002.  The public was invited to attend from 2:00 pm until 5:00 pm.

We are busy these days digitizing the collection for greater preservation and more accessibility.  Professor Mack wrote the Documented History of the Florida Citrus Archives, and there is a copy on hand in the archives for visitors to read.  So many people have wanted a copy to keep, we must add that since we produce this book in house, we cannot spend the time printing and assembling one for less than a $500 donation to cover our costs and justify our time spent printing and assembling it.  

Our current project is to raise enough money for the Endowment to keep our facility open and running into the future, since completion of the accession of the large influx of materials over the past three years and the digitizing of the entire collection will involve a long-term commitment and many labor-intensive hours by a trained archivist as well as volunteers and competent student assistants.