Learn about Florida history and historic preservation during your
lunch hour as we host educational Lunch & Learns from noon to 1 p.m. the first four Thursdays in August. The events are held at the Florida Trust House in Tallahassee and are free, just bring your own lunch if you would like. If you can't join us in person, you can catch the Facebook Live video.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Putting Folklore to Work – A Toolkit for Local-Level Documentation Projects
Presenter: Amanda Hardeman
This presentation will provide the ethnographic took kit you’ll need to embark on your own family oral history or community documentary project. State Folklorist Amanda Hardeman will discuss how you can identify and document local cultural resources to tell the authentic story of place, and then put those stories to work. Through concrete examples and practical techniques, this workshop will help you celebrate your community’s unique identity and shed light on how culture influences the built environment.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
The Colorful Past of Dugout Canoes in Florida
Presenter: Steve Karacic
Dr. Steven Karacic is an archaeologist for PaleoWest Archaeology whose areas of research span over 7,000 years of human history and four continents. He is fascinated by how objects framed the daily interactions of past peoples. Dr. Karacic uses scientific techniques to think about how these objects were made and used with the intention of better understanding the past. His recent work in Florida has focused on dugout canoes in Florida and the possibility that these canoes may have been painted even though the paint is no longer visible.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
The Florida Dream: Golden Gate Estates and the Gulf American Land Corporation
Presenter: Tim Parsons, Ph.D.
In the 1960s, the Florida land boom was on. In places like Cape Coral and Collier County, near Naples, the Gulf American Land Corporation aggressively sold drained – and sometimes undrained – plots of south Florida swamp as the landscape of the Florida dream. The vision of Golden Gate Estates as a thriving metropolis of half a million people never came to pass, but the actions of Gulf American reshaped both the nature of real estate development in the state and became one of the largest environmental restorations in Florida’s history. This presentation is the story of Golden Gate Estates, and how Gulf American sold the dream of a Floridian paradise by the gallon and the economic and ecological consequences that followed: from wetland to failed development and back again.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
African American Heritage of the Riley House
Presenter: Althemese Barnes
For years African American communities have established a distinctive presence in areas throughout Florida. The well-known contributions as well as untold stories of struggle and triumph are woven into a rich and colorful historical tapestry. Amidst these stories are the Landmarks and Legacies that define and describe significant aspects of Florida’s cultural heritage. Join Tallahassee’s John G. Riley Center / Museum Founding Director Emeritus Althemese Barnes on a conversation about the African American Heritage of the Riley House.