By Brittany Cohill
mail@floridanewsline.com
On Nov. 17, 2024 and with hundreds in attendance, Mandarin Museum & Historical Society unveiled a new public art installation in Walter Jones Historical Park. Titled “Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin,” the installation is a life-size bronze sculpture featuring Harriet Beecher Stowe, the 19th-century abolitionist and author of the 1852 anti-slavery novel, ”Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Mandarin Museum commissioned artist Brenda Councill to sculpt “Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin” to reflect Stowe as she was while living in Mandarin during the winters of 1867 through 1884.
While in Mandarin, Stowe was a vocal advocate for Florida’s uplift following the U.S. Civil War. She published ”Palmetto Leaves” in 1873, a collection of essays regarding her life in Mandarin that also promoted Florida’s potential for tourism, industry, and expanded education. Stowe was also a woman of action. She helped found and raise funds for the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour located on Mandarin Road; she operated an orange grove and shipped her produce to northern markets; and in 1869 she worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau to establish a school for Black children in the community, providing the land and hiring the first teacher.
It is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s devotion to greater access to education that the museum and Brenda Councill hoped to capture. The bronze sculpture features two young boys in addition to Stowe. The scene imagines the boys as laborers in her orange grove who have taken a break to sit with her as she reads to them and provides instruction.
“Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin” is on permanent outdoor display alongside Mandarin Museum and the park’s 1898 St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African American Children. Also on permanent display inside the 1898 Schoolhouse is a time-lapse video showcasing the project from concept to completion. Brenda Councill’s creative and sculpting process was meticulously documented by Olis Garber and Keith Bartholomew, local professional photographer-videographers. The results demonstrate the significance of this project and Councill’s dedication to the “lost wax” method of bronze sculpting, a method requiring great skill and patience.
“Harriet Beecher Stowe in Mandarin” was made possible through the support of so many in the Mandarin community and the City of Jacksonville.
Photo courtesy Olis Garber
Evinn Wilson, Beckham Morgan, Ebony Monroe, Devin Wilson, Mandarin Museum Executive Director Brittany Cohill, COJ Director of Parks Daryl Joseph, Sandy Arpen, Patrick Plumlee, Councilman Michael Boylan, Emily Lisska, Wanda Bosworth, and Brenda Councill.
