{"id":145100,"date":"2026-02-05T19:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145100\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:41:19","slug":"tampa-bay-history-center-explores-floridas-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145100\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay History Center explores Florida&#8217;s history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/tampabayhistorycenter.org\/visit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tampa Bay History Center<\/a> tells the stories of our area, starting with the first settlers.<\/p>\n<p>The history center teaches about the arrival of Europeans, North Africans and more Native Americans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what happens with Spanish Florida, English Florida and then eventually American Florida,\u201d said Rodney Kite-Powell, Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/tampabayhistorycenter.org\/exhibit\/touchton-map-library\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Touchton Map Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The native Seminole people survived multiple wars and removal efforts. They call themselves \u201cThe Unconquered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Tampa cigar industry brought new immigrants \u2014 Cubans, Spaniards, Afro-Cubans and Sicilians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt its peak in the 1920s, it was about 500,000,000 cigars produced every year, all by hand,\u201d said Kite-Powell.<\/p>\n<p>The next museum level offers a new historical timeline: war stories. Five-hundred years of Black history and a look at the pioneer life of Florida Crackers.<\/p>\n<p>At the Treasure Seekers gallery, young learners find out how explorers and pirates got here.<\/p>\n<p>Spoiler alert \u2014 it\u2019s math.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s recovered treasure, but all that glitters is not gold.<\/p>\n<p>They also have a rare map on display of St. Augustine in 1588.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe earliest view of any city in today\u2019s United States,\u201d said Kite-Powell.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s courtesy of the center\u2019s Touchton Map Library and includes a 1511 map showing the tip of South Florida, two years before Ponce de Leon arrived to explore Florida.<\/p>\n<p>They also have a 1524 map of Florida, the first time Florida is called \u201cLa Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Together, these artifacts tell the story of <a href=\"https:\/\/dos.fl.gov\/florida-facts\/florida-history\/a-brief-history\/early-human-inhabitants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Sunshine State\u2019s 14,000-year history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut also how tied in the broader story of American History Florida really is,\u201d said Kite-Powell.<\/p>\n<p>Florida history \u2014 our history \u2014 is American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Tampa Bay History Center tells the stories of our area, starting with the first settlers.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,7150,4092,274,770,28,7151,276,115,139,135,137,136,106,278,20871,7148,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-145100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-florida-on-a-tankful","10":"tag-app-things-to-do","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-community-news","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-on-a-tankful","15":"tag-hillsborough-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-tampa","19":"tag-tampa-headlines","20":"tag-tampa-news","21":"tag-things-to-do","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-trip-on-a-tankful","24":"tag-virginia-johnson","25":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}