Museum of Florida History

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Museum of Florida History

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Opened in 1977, the Museum of Florida History collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets evidence of past and present cultures in Florida, and promotes knowledge and appreciation of this heritage. As the state history museum, it focuses on artifacts and eras unique to Florida's development and on roles that Floridians have played in national and global events. Through exhibits, educational prog

rams, research, and collections, the Museum reflects the ways that people have shaped and reacted to their cultural and natural environments.

09/02/2026

At the start of this new school year, let us look at an old school supply. These days, students might complete their classwork on lined paper or by using electronic tablets, but long ago, young learners wrote on slate tablets to practice their lessons. Made from slate stone, these low tech tablets were cheaper and more readily available than paper. Students would show their completed work to the teacher for approval before erasing their tablets with a cloth rag and going on to the next assignment. They wrote using slate pencils or chalk. The double slate shown here is sometimes known as a "book slate," because it consists of two slates bound together down one side and opens like a book. Its fabric-wrapped edges cushioned the tablet when set down, so it made less noise. As paper became more affordable and available in the latter part of the 1800s, it eventually replaced the slate tablet.

Slate tablets, ca. 1880s–1920s. Collection of the Museum of Florida History

08/21/2026

As everyone prepares for the school year to begin, it is always nice to remember that the oldest wooden school house in the country is right here in St. Augustine, Florida. This postcard shows the Oldest School House in the early 20th century. You can still visit it today off St. George St. https://oldestwoodenschoolhouse.com/

08/17/2026

Happy National Pineapple Juice Day! Although the citrus industry is more famous, pineapples were once a major cash crop in the state. In the late 1900s to the early 1900s, Florida was once one of the largest producers of pineapples in the United States. This would end once commercial refrigeration made shipping from Hawaii and the Caribbean more affordable. However, pineapples are still popularly grown in home gardens.
📷: Orange Lake Pineapple Oranges Label, c. 1930-1950. Collection of the Museum of Florida History.

08/14/2026

Taking a dip in the cool waters of a Florida spring has been a surefire way to beat the summer heat for years. Since the mid-1800s, people attributed healthful properties to the sulfur-scented waters of White Springs (also known as White Sulfur Springs). In the early 1900s, the owners of the springs boasted of benefits beyond recreation for their visitors, claiming that drinking or swimming in the water could cure a variety of ailments from cancer to skin rashes. They constructed a multi-story bathhouse complete with a concrete wall to keep the bathing area separate from the darker, tannic water of the Suwannee River.
In 1908, a visitor wrote to her friend in Duluth, Minnesota, telling her of her companion’s positive experience at the springs. Though she noted that his health was improving before their arrival in White Springs (and thus she could not attribute his progress solely to his daily swims) she was delighted that he was gaining strength during their stay.
📷: Postcard, White Springs, Florida, 1908. Collection of the Museum of Florida History

08/12/2026

Check out this charming souvenir Florida wooden fan sporting hand-painted oranges and orange blossoms. With the growth of the citrus industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the orange became a symbol of Florida, used on promotional material and featured on a variety of souvenirs, such as postcards, fine china, jewelry, and more. In 1909, the Florida legislature named the fragrant orange blossom as the state’s official flower, and in 1967, orange juice became the state’s official beverage, but for many years, Florida had no official fruit. A fourth-grade class in Sarasota noticed the omission and took action, leading to the designation of the orange as Florida’s official fruit in 2005. If you are spending time away from air conditioning this hot August, hopefully, you can find a sweet fan like this to help cope with the heat!
📷: Souvenir fan, ca. 1930s. Collection of the Museum of Florida History

08/10/2026

“All aboard” the Florida Freedom Tour as it heads to Liberty County tomorrow! Established on December 15, 1855, the county was named to honor the American ideals of freedom and liberty. Learn more about the state’s early history when you visit the Florida Freedom Tour at Veterans Memorial Railroad in Bristol tomorrow, Monday, August 10, starting at 8:30 a.m. local time (subject to change). More about the Florida Freedom Tour here: America250FL.com.

08/06/2026

What happens when you mix a Swiss chalet, a working brewery and bottling operation, and African grasslands? Busch Gardens, of course! The Old Swiss House Restaurant began operating at Busch Gardens Tampa in 1964, five years after the park’s opening. It overlooked a grassland filled with African wildlife. Though the park would later be known for its African-themed rides and exhibits, at the time the main attractions were an on-site brewery and the namesake landscaped gardens.
A chalet might seem out of place on the Serengeti, but the building held a special meaning for the Busch family. In the early 1950s, August A. Busch Jr. met his future-wife Trudy at her family’s restaurant, the Old Swiss House, in Lucerne, Switzerland. When developing Busch Gardens Tampa, he directed that a replica of the restaurant be built as a gift for her. This version, however, was built ten times larger than the original and featured added towers. To outfit the restaurant, buyers spent two years purchasing art, furniture, and fixtures across the United States and Europe. Over the years, the structure was reworked to fit the park’s African theme and is now known as the Serengeti Overlook restaurant.
📷: Old Swiss House postcard, ca. 1970s, Collection of the Museum of Florida History. View of the restaurant from across the Serengeti plain in 1977, Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida

08/03/2026

Happy National Sunflower Day! Sunflowers can be found blooming across Florida from the spring months well into the fall. Mrs. Jessie Stokes of Micanopy, Florida, found inspiration in the cheery flower when she created this quilt between 1880 and 1925. The quilt is just over 7 feet by 7 feet and is made of twenty-five repeating blocks. Within each block is a sunflower pattern made of pink, white, and paisley fabric.
📷: Sunflower quilt, ca. 1880–1925. Collection of the Museum of Florida History

08/02/2026

This year, National Clown Day and National Coloring Book Day both fall on August 2. This artifact connects these fun dates—a coloring book with a clown on the cover! At the request of the US Congress, on August 2, 1971, President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation designating August 1–7 as National Clown Week. Though it only applied to that year, clowns continue to be celebrated in August. Sarasota became “circus city,” as shown on this book’s cover, after John Ringling selected the city as the winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1927. A clown is featured on the cover because clowns were once an integral part of the circus. Today, however, fewer people are donning the traditional clown makeup and costume to entertain at the circus.

An early form of the coloring book began in the 1600s as both entertainment and a way to train wealthy adults in the art of painting. Only a few books intended to teach youth to paint were produced. However, the invention of lithography, a new, cheaper way to print books, in the late 1700s, made books more accessible to the average person and contributed to a rise in children’s coloring books in the latter half of the 1800s. Today, adult coloring books are once again popular. If you are planning to be in Tampa this fall, stop by the Tampa Bay History Center where you can see this coloring book in an exhibit on Florida movie posters that opens in September. The exhibit is part of the Museum of Florida History’s TREX traveling exhibits program, and the coloring book helps to interpret the 1952 circus movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, partially filmed in Sarasota. For more information on the exhibit, visit https://tampabayhistorycenter.org/exhibit/cinema-in-the-sunshine-state/.
📷: Coloring book, "Sarasota, the Circus City, ca. 1952. Collection of the Museum of Florida History

07/30/2026

The museum staff are big fans of , happening now. What better way to celebrate than listening to Jimmy Buffett's 1974 record “Living and Dying in ¾ times”? This album was released one year before the film “Jaws” came out which would later prompt the creation of Shark Week. The back of the album featured a photograph of a large shark taken by Gil Drake, a famous Caribbean fisherman.
📷: Jimmy Buffet Record "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time". Collection of Museum of Florida History

Address

500 S Bronough Street
Tallahassee, FL
32399

Telephone

+18502456400

Website

http://www.museumoffloridahistory.com/

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