Florida Conversations Continues



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The Tampa Bay History Center continues its Florida Conversations Lecture Series with ”400 Years of Florida Maps”, a talk led by the History Center’s founding board chairman and map collector, Tom Touchton, on Thursday, February 17^th at 6:30 p.m.

Touchton will discuss his 30-year interest in cartography and his expansive collection of rare and antique maps and charts.

In 2009, Touchton, together with his wife, Lavinia, established the J. Thomas and Lavinia Witt Touchton Collection of Florida Cartography at the Tampa Bay History Center. The 25 maps currently on exhibit in the History Center’s Touchton Map Gallery span 400 years of exploration and settlement in Florida. The earliest map dates to 1513.

Co-sponsored by the USF Libraries Florida Studies Center and supported by WUSF Public Media, Florida Conversations features authors and presenters covering a variety of Florida topics, from politics to fiction, history to environmental issues.

Florida Conversations is free and open to the public. Public parking is available at St. Pete Times Forum East Lot, the Channelside garage and other city-owned lots. For more information, contact the Tampa Bay History Center at (813) 228-0097 or online at http://www.tampabayhistorycenter.org/.

Celebrate Lincoln's Birthday with $5 admission to the Tampa Bay History Center

Celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday with $5 dollar admission to the History Center from 10:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 12th.

In addition to reduced admission, the Confederate militia of Fort Brooke will re-appear on the banks of Hillsborough Bay when local re-enactors set up camp in Cotanchobee Park, just steps away from the History Center entrance.

This family-friendly day of activities includes Confederate and Union drill demonstrations, children's activities and historical reenactors throughout the exhibit galleries.

Our latest exhibition, Blue and Gray in Tampa Bay: The Civil War on Florida's Gulf Coast, features Civil War-era maps, weaponry, photographs and reproduction uniforms, located in the Wayne Thomas Gallery. Learn how the War Between the States affected Secessionists, Unionists, slaves and women in the Tampa Bay area. In addition, the History Center is featuring the traveling exhibit Florida in the Civil War, on loan from the Orange County Regional History Center.

The $5.00 admission rate cannot be combined with other discounts or offers and is good for admission on February 12, 2011 only.