Florida History Museum

14 Jan 10--Went to the Florida History Museum downtown Tallahassee today. They really covered a lot of material, but in a relatively small space, so you didn't feel like you were being overwhelmed. I liked it.

After pointing out that Florida would have been under water during the time of the dinosaurs, they started the tour with the 1st people of Florida, who they called Paleoindians. They had everything from tools and weapons to the Mastodon.

Here are some pictures showing how they buried their dead (actually under water), and also how they went about felling a tree and hollowing out that tree in order to make a boat. I was surprised how they did both with fire...if I ever learned that, I had surely forgotten it.

This picture just shows how many Indian tribes there were in Florida back in the 1600s.

And here is probably the most famous Indian in Florida history. I have heard Cathy mention him before, from her high school history classes.

Florida was the 27th state to join the Union, in 1845...right in time to gear up for the Civil War. Almost half the state's population was made up of slaves at that time, so needless to say they were on the Confederate side (haha). They were the 3rd state to secede from the union, after South Carolina and Mississippi. Make sure you check out the picture with the "patriotic envelopes". That was something else I had never seen or heard about. Notice the devil and angel on it...I guess we have a long history in this country of demonizing each other, huh?

They had a section showing a lot of the old machinery, and even a kitchen around 1914...that was when the Dept of Agriculture established the Agriculture Extension Service, that went around teaching men and boys about better farming techniques, while they had in-home demonstrations for women and girls about cooking, etc. Talk about the era of "big government"!

Of course they had examples of old furniture...check out the high chair...it converted into a baby carriage once you flipped the tray to the back and lowered the back wheels. Pretty cool, huh? And that washing machine was the 1st one off the assembly line in 1935.

And the highlight of the day was this info on what was called "Tin Can Tourism"!!! This started after WW I, when tourism 1st started to hit the middle classes...and look how ingenious they were in converting trucks into what we all know today as RVs!!!

I took a picture of this bicycle because it was made by a company in Boston, and also because they told the story of how the bicycle with chains were originally sold for their "safety" features. Learn something new every day!

And the 1st electric cars??? And why are we still struggling today???

This was a replica of a steamboat. That's Cathy!

They had a pretty good sized section on WW II. I took mostly pictures of the women stuff, just because!!! haha Actually I took the one showing the Army Air Force because I figured a lot of you didn't know that it wasn't until after WWII that the Air Force became a seperate service...in 1947 to be exact. Just a little history within the history. Then I took the one that talked about the "Japs" because it always surprises me how crass we were back then...can you imagine anyone printing something like that today???

I think these shots talking about the War's impact are interesting. Especially the part that talks about minority and women's rights. Talk about unintended consequences!!! haha

And finally, in the gift shop were these 2 cards, which made me think of all my nieces and grand-nieces....Girls in the 21st century....rock on!!!