A new Cummer exhibit is highlighting museum founder Ninah Cummer’s contribution to Jacksonville’s beauty.
Her vision is on display both inside the museum and in places like Riverside’s Memorial Park.
On Friday afternoon in riverfront Memorial Park, cyclists, runners and kids were enjoying the sun on paved paths cut through large grassy areas.
Less than half a mile away at the Cummer Museum, Memorial Park’s history was on display in an exhibit called “Conservation, Beautification and a City Plan.”
The Cummer’s Lori Ann Whittington was walking through the displays.
“They were so concerned with the city’s being overbuilt in the 1920’s to preserve parks, what would they think of it today?” she says.
In the early 1900s, NinahCummer shared city planners’ belief in the importance of green spaces. As Chair of the Park Advisory Committee for the City Commission of Jacksonville (1926-29), she helped expand the city park system into what is today the largest park system in the country, Whittington says.
“It was sort of rare for a woman to get involved with public policy and things like that in the 1902,” she says.
The exhibit includes vintage postcards, maps, and plans for Memorial Park. It also includes a miniature model of the Olmstead Brothers statue “Life,” which is at the center of the park.
“Conservation, Beautification and a City Plan” is on display at the Cummer Museum, at 829 Riverside Avenue, through late November. Admission is free every Tuesday night, as well as every first Saturday of each month.
