Florida Historical Quarterly

The Florida Historical Quarterly is an American academic journal, published four times a year by the Florida Historical Society. With editorial offices at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, the journal is a scholarly publication and journal of record in Florida history.

Organized on November 26, 1902, and chartered three years later, the Florida Historical Society was the successor to the Historical Society of Florida, formed in 1856. According to its charter, the society's mission was twofold: "the collection, arrangement and preservation of all materials pertaining to the history of, or in any manner illustrative of Florida . . . [and to] prepare, edit and publish articles, sketches, biographies, pamphlets, books and documents, descriptive or illustrative of Florida". To fulfill the second objective, the Society initiated the Publications of the Florida Historical Society in April 1908, the predecessor to The Florida Historical Quarterly.

Both the collections and the publication depended on whether "our members and friends will sustain us with such financial aid as may be necessary". At the time, annual dues were five dollars, but society officers still had trouble collecting. "Don't make it necessary for those who are devoting their time and labor in the interest of the Society, without financial compensation, to have to send a second notification to delinquent members", said President F.P. Fleming in 1908.

Today, the Florida Historical Society has grown from its early days in a "commodious" room of the Jacksonville Public Library to its current home in a renovated U.S. Post Office in Cocoa, Florida. The society has evolved in its mission as well: dedicated to preserving Florida's past through collection and archival maintenance, through scholarly research and publication, and through public history, historic preservation, and youth education.

The Florida Historical Quarterly has likewise evolved. From his office at the University of Florida, Professor Samuel Proctor edited the journal for nearly thirty years, from 1964 to 1993, before handing editorial control over to Professor George E. Pozzetta at the University of South Florida. Less than two years later, however, Pozzetta died, and Proctor returned to the editorship until someone new could be found. In late 1995, Professor Jerrell Schofner succeeded Proctor as interim editor, establishing a partnership between the Florida Historical Society and the University of Central Florida. The following year, Professor Kari Fredrickson assumed editorship for a four-year term. Her interests in social history expanded the breadth of historical topics covered in the publication and further strengthened the journal.