The history of Florida is in a sense the history of America - St. Augustine was settled long before the English landed at Jamestown. A new exhibit at the Tampa Bay History Center takes a look at the history of the state - dating from the very first maps to depict Florida.
It's called "Charting the Land of Flowers: 500 Years of Florida Maps." The exhibition features more than 150 rare Florida maps, documents and other artifacts from as early as 1493. Maps on exhibit are on loan from the Library of Congress, the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, the University of Florida and other collections. Some of the highlights include:
· First printed map to use the name “Florida”
· First printed map to use the name “Tampa”
· Earliest known map of the City of Tampa
· Earliest plat of St. Petersburg
· First map of Miami Beach
· First map of Ybor City
Charting the Land of Flowers is on exhibit through February.
Half a millennia after the voyage of discovery by Ponce de Leon, museum curator Rodney Kite-Powell takes us on a trip through 500 years of Florida maps. He speaks with WUSF's Steve Newborn
