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Historian Will Discuss WWI Scrolls Unearthed In Memorial Park Saturday

BRENDAN RIVERS
/
WJCT News
Crews from Jacksonville Fire & Rescue worked to remove the lid from the copper box unearthed at Memorial Park on Sept. 27.

After digging up parchment scrolls in Jacksonville’s Memorial Park in September, conservators in St. Augustine are combing over them.  

The scrolls are believed to contain more than 1,200 names of Floridians who died during World War I. They were handwritten in calligraphy using India ink.  

Professor R.B. Rosenburg of Clayton State University in Georgia has been compiling a Florida World War I memorial database.  She wants to compare the scroll names to the more than 1,500 he’s found from other sources.

On Friday’s First Coast Connect, Clayton said historians found a smaller piece of parchment attached to the larger one.

“There’s actually one scroll, six total pages, and actually we discovered that there were more names than what was on the flag,” Clayton said.

Clayton will speak about his research at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Garden Club of Jacksonville on Riverside Avenue.  

Michelle Corum can be reached at mcorum@wjct.org, 904-358-6308 or on Twitter at @MCorumonME.

Michelle Corum joined WJCT as "Morning Edition" host in 2012 and has worked in public broadcasting as an announcer and reporter for public radio stations in Lawrence, Kansas, and Interlochen, Michigan. She also manages WJCT's Radio Reading Service for sight-impaired listeners.