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Lakeland History Room


Hours: 

Mon - Thurs. - 9 am - 7 pm
Fri - Sat: 9 am - 5 pm
Sun: 1:30 pm - 5 pm


Lakeland History Room Service Desk: 863.834.4284

Lakeland History Room Librarian Supervisor: LuAnn Mims
Ph: 863.834.4269
Email: luann.mims@lakelandgov.net

  • Using the Lakeland History Room

    Services: 

    • Research assistance with local history 
    • House/property records research 
    • Family Genealogy, Newspapers and Obituaries — please contact LuAnn Mims at 863.834.4269 or email LuAnn.Mims@lakelandgov.net
    • DIY Digitize Lab — guided assistance by appointment only to reformat analog materials to digital formats (excluding film). Please contact Rebecca Whalon to schedule an appointment in the DIY workspace at 863.834.4212 or email Rebecca.Whalon@lakelandgov.net

     

  • Digital Collections

    The Lakeland History Room collection features a variety of materials—documents, photographs, maps, building plans, audio/visual media, and scrapbooks with specialty items like citrus crate labels, artwork, yearbooks, posters, and postcards. There are also 8000+ images viewable online via our Digital Collection on CONTENTdm.

    Click on the icons below to explore digital collections, photo albums, and story maps of Lakeland history:

    Digital Photo Collection                    Library Flickr Albums

    Lakeland Story Maps                      Vanished Lakeland History Pin

     

  • In-Person Classes and Self-Paced Learning

    In-Person Classes 

    Genealogy:

    • Generators – meets the first Monday of each month @6pm- is an ad hoc group that discusses genealogical topics of interest
    • Beginning Genealogy – offered twice a year – basic introduction to researching your family history
    • Get Started with Ancestry.com – offered twice a year – guided tour through the premier genealogical database
    • Focus on Family Search – offered twice a year – step by step look at this FREE family history resources

    Archival:

    • Photograph Preservation instruction offered in person twice a year to introduce reformatting from analog to digital concepts

    Self-Paced Learning: Organizing and Preserving Your Materials

    Trying to get your personal memorabilia better organized?  Start with the Personal Archiving at Home video series. These short videos give detailed instruction on how to take care of your treasured memorabilia – photographs, slides, negatives, papers, audio and video tapes and more. Topics include preservation, storage, digitization, standard formatting, organization tips and adding to your family archives.

    Part I: Historic Preservation
    Part II: Organization & Maintenance
    Part III: Digitization

     

  • Lakeland History and Culture Center Lecture Series

    Green outline of tree with people on each branch and text "Collaborative Family Trees: Making Them Work for You with Drew Smith, Saturday, October 11th, 10 AM to 12 PM, Main Library Meeting Room"Collaborative Trees: Making Them Work for You
    with Drew Smith
    Lakeland Public Library Meeting Room 
    Saturday, October 11th at 10 AM 

    Join us at the Lakeland Public Library on Saturday, October 11th at 10 AM as Drew Smith, associate librarian emeritus at the University of South Florida Libraries in Tampa, presents "Collaborative Trees: Making Them Work for You."

    Drew Smith, who specializes in genealogical research is the co-host of The Genealogy Guys Podcast and the host of the Genealogy Connection podcast. He is a founder and administrator of The Genealogy Squad Facebook Group, with over 72,000 members, and writes a regular productivity column for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly. Drew co-authored the book Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques and is the author of the book Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher. His latest book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, was published in 2023 by Genealogical Publishing Co. Drew is the 2024 recipient of the Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award, presented annually by the Dallas Genealogical Society to an individual for outstanding contributions to the genealogical community on a national level.

    Sponsored by Imperial Polk Genealogy Society and Lakeland History and Culture Center

    Find out more information about "Collaborative Trees: Making Them Work for You"  No registration is required. All ages welcome.

     

  • History Tours

    Lakeland History Room Staff host historical walking tours for the public featuring Lakeland history, as well as providing curated exhibit tours of the Lakeland History and Culture Center.

    • Stories and Stones – Saturdays (check dates/registration) monthly walk and talk biographical tours of Lakeland’s oldest cemeteries – Roselawn, Tigers Flowers and Lake View
    • Green Hat and White Gloves – Second Tuesdays monthly (check dates and registration) walking tour of Lake Mirror with “Serena Bailey” Lakeland’s first librarian (1929-1959)
    • From the Groves — Lakeland's Citrus Story – curated exhibit tour available by appointment

     

    For more information contact, LuAnn Mims: 863.834.4269, LuAnn.Mims@lakelandgov.net 

  • Lakeland History & Culture Center

    Opened on September 8, 2022, the Lakeland History and Culture Center features a 1400 square foot exhibit space dedicated to telling the many stories of our community.

    The inaugural exhibit, Ties That Bind: 1880-1925, Lakeland's Formative Years, showcased the early days of Lakeland's founding and the role of the railroads in helping to develop the area.

    Explore the current exhibit, From the Groves — Lakeland’s Citrus Story, to discover how the citrus industry impacted Lakeland’s economy, why Lakeland was formerly called the “World Citrus Center,” the location of early groves, who helped to market the products, and what defines the local citrus industry today, as well as hear reflections through oral histories from people historically connected to citrus.

    This free, self-guided, interactive exhibit is open:

    Monday-Thursday  9am-7pm
    Friday-Saturday 9am-5pm
    Sunday 1:30pm-5pm

    For information about curated tours, call LuAnn Mims at 863.834.4269


    Learn more about the Lakeland History & Culture Center.


Popular at the Lakeland History Room

  • Ancestry.com logo green leaf with link to ancestry.com login

    Ancestry.com

    Start your family history search here at the library! Ancestry.com offers free access to all library patrons. (In library only)

  • Floyd Bernard was a circus performer and aerialist who used a a number of stage names during his fifty year entertainment career.  Among them were Floyd Merrill and, as pictured here, Don Bernardo, king of the swinging wire.; link to contentDM "Bernard Family Photos" collection

    Digital Photo Collection Feature: Bernard Family Photos

    Explore Lakeland’s History through Photos! 

    The Bernard family of Lakeland, Florida was for three generations a family of circus and vaudeville performers. The family was enshrined in the Sarasota (FL) Circus Hall of Fame in 1965.

    The family's circus tradition began with family patriarch Floyd Bernard. Born Floyd Hardman in Boone, Iowa on July 23, 1885, he ran away from home to join the circus at the age of twelve and changed his name to Floyd Bernard. Bernard learned contortion and high wire acts and barnstormed with small circuses across the mid-west until joining the nationally known Ringling Brothers Circus in 1905. It was while with the Ringling Brothers Circus that Bernard met his future wife, Maude Quayle. She had also joined the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1905 as a dancer in its opening "extravaganza." Their courtship was carried on discretely for nearly a year, primarily through exchanges of notes, because the circus had a policy prohibiting the employment of married couples. The two were secretly married in Canada in 1906.

    The Bernard family, which by this time included son Howard, moved to Lakeland in 1931. They continued to perform independently and as part of a circus throughout the decade. In 1939, Howard married dancer Dorothy Ames, who joined the other family members to form an acrobatic and high wire act known as the Four Merrills. The extended family, by now including Howard and Dorothy's two daughters and a son, settled into Lakeland. Floyd became a mail carrier in the city and Howard, after undergoing flight training, served as a flight instructor in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida during World War II. The family still performed locally in such venues as Lakeland's Polk Theater, Winter Haven's Citrus Festival, and Plant City's Strawberry Festival. Family members also continued to travel and perform with the Shrine Circus.

    In the post-war years, Howard worked as a flight instructor and the family act, now including Howard and Dorothy's two daughters, continued to perform at sites around Polk County. Maude and Floyd, both approaching seventy, retired from the act in 1954. The remaining four, Howard, Dorothy and their two daughters, continued to perform for several more years as the Four Bernadino's. The act finally broke up for good in 1964 when daughters Mary and Jean decided on careers outside of show business and the circus. Thus ended nearly seventy years of family tradition. Floyd Bernard died in Lakeland in 1976 at the age of 92. Howard died at the age of 78 in 1986 and Maude followed her son in death in 1989 at the age of 100.

  • An aerial view of downtown Lakeland, Florida circa 1966, with Lake Mirror and the Lake Mirror Promenade in the foreground and Lake Wire in the background. Shuffleboard and lawn bowling areas are visible on the lower left.; link to Lakeland Public Library "Bird's-Eye View" Flickr album

    Bird's-Eye View

    Our story begins with you...what better way to tell the many stories of Lakeland and its history, than visually by showcasing highlights from our Digital Collection through Flickr.   

    Check out our featured album:

    Bird's-Eye View

    A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans, and maps.

    Enjoy this photographic aerial perspective on Lakeland's landscapes through the years, showcased from our Flickr Digital Collection.

     

  • Circa 1920s postcard of Tremont Hotel, Lakeland, FLA with text Early Lakeland Hotels; link to Lakeland Public Library "Early Lakeland Hotels" story map

    Lakeland Stories Feature: Early Lakeland Hotels

    Discover more about Lakeland’s History through Stories! 

    Overlooking the reflective waters of Lake Mirror stands the Terrace Hotel, a significant contributor the Lakeland skyline. It was built during the boom-time economy and population growth in 1924. But some forty years earlier, in 1884, another structure stood here on Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue, called the Tremont House, which became the first hotel in Lakeland when it was incorporated in 1885. Its story begins in 1883, when Kentucky businessman and land speculator Abraham G. Munn purchased two-thousand acres of land in interior Florida. 

    Munn, along with business partners, Samuel Hartwell and Charles Hillman, organized the Lakeland Improvement Company. Their first project, build a hotel. Munn sent his sons Morris, a graduate of Stetson University, and Samuel, who had recently graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to survey the area with the prospect of the coming railroad and ultimately, land development. The Munn Survey of 1884 included streets, a downtown, the outline of a passenger depot, and a city park. But already shaded in on the corner of Main and Massachusetts, was the footprint of the Tremont House, which would become Lakeland’s first hotel, built by the Lakeland Improvement Company.

 

As a convenience and for informational purposes only, the City of Lakeland provides external hyperlinks on its website, directing website users towards certain outside sites; links to these websites do not constitute the City of Lakeland’s endorsement or approval of linked websites, or the information, products or services contained therein. All links the City of Lakeland Provides are consistent with the mission of its website. However, the City of Lakeland exercises no editorial control over the information website users may find on external websites. The City of Lakeland also cannot attest to the accuracy or appropriateness of information provided by external websites and organizations.