Alachua County Community Remembrance Project’s Remembrance Quilts

Mary Ann Cofrin Exhibit Hall

Opens January 21, 2026

The Matheson will host the Alachua County Community Remembrance Project’s eight Remembrance Quilts in an exhibit that examines the role that injustice and violence had in our county’s history and the ways that our community moved towards reconciliation in the recent past. The quilts were made by Alachua County residents from various walks of life to commemorate those lives lost to racial violence in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Alachua Phenomenon: Two Centuries in Florida’s Eden

Main Exhibit Hall

Alachua County, by modern standards, is characteristically un-Floridian. It has no beaches, it has no amusement parks, and it presently has no commercial citrus groves. And yet, today Alachua County is the beating heart of north central Florida. The Alachua Phenomenon will examine what made that happen over the last 200 years. In the process, the history of the county will unfold through an examination of the land, environment, agriculture, industry, education, and community. We invite you to join us and discover two centuries in Florida’s Eden.

This original exhibition includes photographs and objects from the Matheson collection and items on loan from our Alachua County museum partners, including one of the original copper lions from the 1885 county courthouse.

Curator: Willett Hancock, Curator of Exhibitions, Matheson History Museum

Graphic Designer: Rick Kilby, https://www.rickkilby.com/

When Johnny Came Marching Home: Some Gave All – All Gave Some

by Ken McGurn and Matthew Pollard

Outdoor Exhibition – located on the west side of the main Matheson building behind the set of flag poles along Sweetwater Branch

This sculpture was designed by Ken McGurn and fabricated by Matthew Pollard. In partnership with the Matheson, the City of Gainesville and Ken McGurn the artwork will remain here for a year or more. Next time you’re downtown spend a few minutes viewing the artwork and remembering those who came home from war with both physical and mental wounds.

McGurn: “We honor the dead, but often ignore the wounds, both physical and mental, carried by those who returned. I did this to remind people that war leaves wounds and to heal some of my own memories. The first represents the soldier in his shiny new uniform marching off to war, rifle over his shoulder. The second is unfinished, rusting brown representing the soldier as he patrols in the jungle, rifle across his chest in the ready position. The third is the soldier home from war. The ‘rifle’ is now a crutch where his missing a leg. The material is steel representing the soldier’s strength.”

Ken McGurn served in the Army and Army Reserves from 1963 to 1979. He was deployed to Vietnam in 1965 and Germany from 1968-1970. We honor all of those who served.