Connor, Jeannette Thurber, -1927

Historian. Born, 1872.

Biographical Note

Jeannette Thurber Connor, born 1872, became interested in researching the early history of Florida after her marriage to Washington Everett Connor in 1913. Following her investigation into the background of a Spanish mission on her husband's Florida estate, Connor began her research into the early Spanish settlements and missions of Florida. She accumulated transcripts and photocopies of original letters, reports, and other documents of Spanish officials of Florida from 1570 to the beginning of the eigthteenth century that had been preserved in Spanish repositories, especially the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain. Together with John B. Stetson (1884-1952), Connor founded the Florida State Historical Society in 1921 and began a publication project of Florida historical studies supported by the society. Among the volumes Connor translated and edited for the series were Pedro Menéndez de Avilés: Memorial by Gonzalo Solis de Merás (De Land, Fla.: Florida State Historial Society, 1923); Colonial Records of Spanish Florida, 2 vols. (De Land, Fla.: Florida State Historial Society, 1925 and 1930); and The Whole and True Discouerye of Terra Florida (De Land, Fla.: Florida State Historial Society, 1927). Connor died on June 9, 1927 in New York, N.Y. Upon Connor's death and following financial losses suffered by Stetson in 1929, the Florida State Historical Society was discontinued and its publishing program terminated.