Matheson History Museum presents “Why is the University of Florida in Gainesville?”

Press release from the Matheson History Museum

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Matheson History Museum will host Carl Van Ness at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2. The program is free with registration.

Carl Van Ness’s program will focus on the Buckman Act of 1905 and Florida’s draconian decision to abandon the campus of the University of Florida in Lake City. Had the Buckman Act not been passed, what would Gainesville be like without the University of Florida? Van Ness’s book, The Making of Florida Universities: Public Higher Education at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, was recently published by the University Press of Florida.

In-person registration: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/events/77112-why-is- the-university-of-florida-in-gainesville

Zoom registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_er6OxteORWamPH8ZXy66_Q

Carl Van Ness

Carl Van Ness is University Librarian Emeritus and the former Political Papers Archivist at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries. Van Ness previously served as head of archives and manuscripts, associate chair of the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections, and University Historian. He retired in 2022 after working at the University for 38 years.

This program is sponsored in part by Visit Gainesville/Alachua County, FL; The City of Gainesville; and by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of the Arts and Culture, and the State of Florida.