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John Morgan Ingraham House Museum
The Howard and Velma Melton Historical Research Library
The John Morgan Ingraham House Museum, 300 N. Monroe Avenue, is a late 19th century home, restored as a memorial to all early pioneer families of the City of Arcadia and DeSoto County. It showcases a simple kind of “Florida Cracker” architecture and lifestyle and includes furniture and artifacts from that period plus other exhibits featuring local history.
The Howard and Velma Melton Historical Research Library is now open in the John Morgan Ingraham Seed House, 120 W. Whidden Street, Arcadia. The Research Library includes historic photographs, newspaper articles, letters, receipts, family histories, and many other documents. Research assistance is available. Both the Museum and Research Library are open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays, plus the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.
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“The Negative Project”
First Charles Moore and then Dick Davenport worked as studio photographers in Arcadia, and when Davenport retired, Howard Melton—Arcadia’s local historian—bought the studio’s negatives and some photographs dating from the 1920s through 1980. He generously gave negatives and photographs of local families to those family members whom he knew. In 2008, he sold the negatives that remained to the Historical Society with the other material in his “historical research library.” After the death of Winnie Duncan—also a professional photographer and journalist in Arcadia—her family also donated thousands of her negatives to the Society.
Now the Society has an ideal facility in which to store these valuable historic materials—the John Morgan Ingraham Seed House. Volunteers work to archive, clean, and inventory the collection, and more help is needed. In 2015, the Society gratefully received a $500 donation from the Arcadia Rotary Club to purchase archival materials for the safe storage of the negatives, but additional materials are needed to complete this project. The Society welcomes and appreciates donations for archival materials, as well as for the purchase of a scanner that will print large negatives.
Share Collections & Memorabilia
There are wonderful photographs and items of historical significance belonging to many Arcadia and DeSoto County families and past residents or visitors to the Museum.
Would you like to share photographs, journals, or other items with us? Visit our Support Page.
Educational Field Trips
FIELD TRIPS to the John Morgan Ingram House and Seed House
The DeSoto County Historical Society welcomes teachers to bring their students for a “field trip to the past”!
The Society provides hands-on activities for the students so that they may “learn by doing.” For example, they may experience washing clothes using a scrub board, bar of laundry soap, and wash tubs. Or, they may learn how to write using a pen dipped in a bottle of ink or type their name on a manual typewriter.
The Society will ask the teacher to divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 students, and the small groups will rotate through the activities, so that each student will have an opportunity to do each hands-on activity.
The activities can be tailored to fit with the class’s curriculum. For example, a class studying geometrical shapes may have an activity that invites students to make their own quilt square pattern using geometrical shapes.
Middle-school and high-school students will also enjoy hands-on activities that are the same tasks but designed to be more complex. For example, instead of simply learning to use a pen dipped in ink, the students will use that skill as if they were a U.S. Census taker in 1920, the same year as Mrs. Ingraham completed the federal census for West Arcadia.
To schedule a field trip, please contact Carol Mahler at 863-445-0789 or online at Contact Us
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Museum Exhibits Around Town
Historic photographs and a display case featuring Arcadia’s unique aviation history are available in the terminal of the Arcadia Municipal Airport, (X06) 2269 SE A. C. Polk, Jr., Ave. A replica of the “Kettering Bug,” a prototype of the “smart bomb” invented by Charles Kettering, that was tested in DeSoto County after World War I, is also on display. https://arcadia-fl.gov/departments/arcadia-municipal-airport-x06
The City of Arcadia conducts business is in the Margaret Way Building, 10 S. Polk Ave., which was originally built in 1920 as the Ford dealership owned by Harley Watson. Historical photographs and information about Harley Watson are on display in the hallway during regular business hours. https://arcadia-fl.gov
The DeSoto County Library, 125 N. Hillsborough Ave., features a display of Florida native plants and how the pioneers used them in the display cases in the Richard Schminke Conference Room. The public is welcome during regular business hours, unless the conference room is in use. http://myhlc.org/desoto-county-library
DeSoto County Property Appraiser David A. Williams, CFA, hosts a modest historical display in the lobby of his office, 201 E. Oak St., Room 102, featuring a photograph of the first train to arrive in Arcadia on March 4, 1886, the Florida Southern Railway wooden depot in 1886, and some antique surveying equipment. http://www.desotopa.com
A display case featuring the major railroads of DeSoto County is located at South Florida State College’s DeSoto Campus, 2251 NE Turner Ave. It includes both historic photographs and artifacts and is open during regular business hours. https://www.southflorida.edu
The DeSoto County Historical Society, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of DeSoto County, Florida for future generations.