Grant Groves, owner of Color Zone Tropicals, Inc. in Winter Garden Florida, collected materials on Mulford B. Foster. He was a botanist, horticulturist, and a lifelong naturalist, also known as "Father of the Bromeliad", born in 1888 in Elmer, New Jersey and passed away at the age of 89 in Orange County, Florida. Collection includes Foster's black & white sketches, color drawings, oil paintings, three-fold screen art work, news clippings, publications, photographs, slides, negatives, correspondence, and blueprints of Foster's house called "Bromel - La."
The materials in this collection represent the subject's career as an academic administrator. Some personal correspondence is present, however, the majority of the collection contains awards, appointment books, and other ephemera.
The road to Captiva was threatened by erosion as it ran at water's edge along the Gulf of Mexico. Erosional forces increased in the 1920s with hurricane action, until much of the island had been eaten away. In the late 1980s beach renourishment was initiated to slow the problem.
