Florida’s Female Pioneers

Join the Historical Society of Avon Park for Peggy Macdonald’s Florida Female Pioneers. Florida’s Female Pioneers explores some of the founding women who have shaped Florida, including Esther Hill Hawks, a physician who ran the first racially integrated school in Florida. Harriet Beecher Stowe kick-started Florida’s tourism industry with her 1873 book, Palmetto Leaves. Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, the first in her family to be born into freedom, became one of the first female college presidents in the world. Betty Mae Tiger Jumper was the first elected female tribal chair of any American Indian tribe in the nation. Dr. Peggy Macdonald is a public historian and adjunct professor at Stetson University and Indian River State College. She has written about local and Florida history for FORUM Magazine, Gainesville Magazine, Our Town Magazine, and Senior Times. Dr. Macdonald’s first book, Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida’s Environment, was published by the University Press of Florida in 2014.

This program is a partnership between Florida Humanities and the Historical Society of Avon Park. Funding for this program was provided by Florida Humanities and sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.