Week One: Rolling in "RICHES"
- Elio Singer
- Jan 16
- 3 min read
Hello, reader! My name is Elio Singer, and I am a junior studying history and anthropology here at UCF. My research focuses on exploring Black American community safekeepers and storytellers of material, social, and cultural resources through physical artifact collections. I currently serve as an undergraduate researcher with the Apopka Historical Board, working closely with the legendary Black community historian Ms. Francina Boykin, and as a digital history intern with UCF’s RICHES initiative. Beginning my research in May of 2025, I was given the life-changing opportunity to digitally preserve the material legacy of Michael Gladden Jr., Apopka’s most prominent Black businessman, Civil Rights activist, and, rather unexpectedly, community archivist. Thanks to the RICHES team, I am thrilled to be bringing my research on Michael Gladden Jr. to UCF through my creation of the Michael Gladden Jr. Digital Archive: the very website you are currently visiting!
History has been entwined in my life as long as I could pick up a book on my favorite topic du jour. My innate curiosity opened the door for me to begin my career in museums and archives at just 14 years old, starting as a costumed docent at the George Chamberlain House in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. After relocating to Central Florida in 2021, my "history" with history was only beginning to unfold. Soon after settling into a new state and home, I served as an intern in archives, web design, and social media at the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation. There, I would learn the practice of professional archival procedures, pick up PastPerfect museum software, and develop a sense of stewardship to safeguard precious artifacts from Florida’s vast and varied past.
During my first semester as a history major at UCF, I was introduced to both Ms. Francina Boykin and her Gladden Collection by Dr. Scot French, a serendipitous event for which I am eternally grateful. Ms. Boykin, ever a walking history book, instantly captivated me with her remarkable ability as a historian and a storyteller. She spoke of Mr. Michael Gladden’s indelible role as the community’s loyal grocer, a changemaker, and the little-known safekeeper of Black community records, before recounting the fateful day in 2003 when she helped save the Gladden Collection alongside Michael Gladden Jr.’s nephew, William “Perrine Slim” Gladden. As Ms. Boykin entered the crumbling structure of M. Gladden Staple and Fancy Groceries, she discovered thousands of store receipts, letters, land deeds, and more, sitting in deep stagnation within Mr. Gladden’s vaults. Ms. Boykin candidly admitted that she had no idea what she was saving, only that she knew these objects had some greater significance because Michael Gladden Jr. assuredly stored what was valuable to him in his vault. It quickly became apparent through store receipts explicitly marked for monetary safekeeping that Michael Gladden Jr. selflessly preserved the names and livelihoods of his beloved community before his own.
With the Michael Gladden Jr. Digital Archive, I wish to continue the legacy of the man behind the collection by creating an evolving digital space for preservation and reflection. Over the Spring 2026 semester, this site will expand to include biographical pages on Michael Gladden Jr. and his wife, Marie Stapler Gladden, explorations of Apopka’s Black history, the complete digitized Gladden Collection, and this blog to document my ongoing research alongside RICHES this semester.
Michael Gladden Jr. once said, "I think I'll leave things in a little better shape than when I came into this world." I hope that this archive honors that promise by ensuring Mr. Gladden’s stewardship of community memory endures for generations to come.
Comments