Florida Memory is administered by the Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services, Bureau of Archives and Records Management. The digitized records on Florida Memory come from the collections of the State Archives of Florida and the special collections of the State Library of Florida.
State Archives of Florida
- ArchivesFlorida.com
- State Archives Online Catalog
- ArchivesFlorida.com
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State Library of Florida
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Research Starter: Zora Neale Hurston in Florida
Research Starter
Zora Neale Hurston is most famous for her novels. However, during the Great Depression, Hurston worked as a folklorist in Florida. Through her work with the Federal Writers’ Project, Hurston captured stories, songs, traditions and histories from African-Americans in small communities across Florida.
In 1939, Hurston went to Cross City in Dixie County, Florida. Hurston’s essay, “Turpentine,” traced her travels through the pine forests with an African-American woods rider named John McFarlin. Her work on Florida’s turpentine camps is still considered authoritative.
Florida Memory
- Audio, Zora Neale Hurston
- Learning Unit, Zora Neale Hurston and the WPA in Florida
- Photographs, Zora Neale Hurston
- Photographs, Zora Neale Hurston Festivals
State Library of Florida
- Bibliography, African American History
Other Online Resources
- Florida Division of Historical Resources, Florida Black Heritage Trail Guide
- University of Central Florida, Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive
Published Sources
- Anna Lillios, Crossing the Creek: The Literary Friendship of Zora Neale Hurston and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010).
- Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005).
- Virginia Lynn Moylan, Zora Neale Hurston's Final Decade (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011).