Florida State Normal School.

Records related to the training of teachers.

The Florida State Normal School, located in DeFuniak Springs, was founded in 1887 and was the principal state school for teacher training prior to the passage of the Buckman Act in 1905. Although the school was coeducational, the majority of the students were women, as were most of the teachers in the state. Prior to 1901, women were not offered state teacher scholarships. In that year, the legislature passed a law authorizing one female scholarship a year for each county. All recipients of the scholarship were to attend the Florida State Normal School. When the school was abolished in 1905 female teacher education was undertaken by the Florida State College for Women and males were directed to the University of Florida. The last principal of the school, Henry Eastman Bennet, became the first head of the Normal Department at the University of

(cont) Florida. Because most of its students were women, the Normal School could be considered a parent organization of Florida State University more so than the University of Florida. However, both universities can claim ties to the Normal School.