Culture, General, History, Library

Located along Tampa's Riverwalk, the Tampa Bay History Center interprets 12,000 years of Florida's history, highlighting Florida's first people, Florida's maritime history, including the history of conquistadors, pirates and shipwrecks, and the cigar and cattle industries. A Smithsonian Affiliate museum, the History Center's three floors of interactive exhibits and theaters focus on the Gulf Coast, from prehistoric times to the present through artifacts, artwork, textiles, documents and furniture. Collections include more than 100 rare shipwreck artifacts recovered from Florida waters, items depicting the history of Tampa's cigar industry, and a collection of Seminole Indian artifacts including tools, clothing and ceremonial items.

Art, History, Historic House, Library, University

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the remarkable legacy of circus entrepreneur and collector of art John Ringling and his wife, Mable. The 66-acre estate includes the Museum of Art, the Searing Galleries, and the Chao Center for Asian Art featuring both permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries and is the home of Joseph’s Coat, a skyspace by the artist James Turrell; the winter-residence of John and Mable Ringling, the Venetian-Gothic Cà d’Zan mansion; historic grounds and gardens; the 18th-century Historic Asolo Theater; and the Circus Museums, including the home of the world’s largest miniature circus at the Tibbals Learning Center.

Art, Culture, History, Library, University

The mission of The Wolfsonian as a museum and research center is reflected in its multidisciplinary approach to looking at objects as both agents and expressions of change. It does so through exhibitions, publications, educational programs, and individual scholarship. While these objects can best be understood in the context in which they were created, they illuminate as much about our times as they reveal about their own. The following mission statement describes its purpose:

The Wolfsonian-Florida International University uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world.

General, History, Historic House, Historical Society, Library

Today, Tampa Historical Society focuses on its Historic Landmark headquarters: the c. 1890 Peter O. Knight House. The House, located in the larger context of Historic Hyde Park, is a perfect tool for interpreting Tampa’s middle class in the era and district where it first grew and stabilized. Through its Collection, its publications, its educational programs, and its events, Tampa Historical Society/The Peter O. Knight House continues a long and successful relationship with Tampa, linking past, present, and future.

Botanical Garden, General, History, Historic House, Historical Society, Library

This Folk Victorian house was the honeymoon cottage of Peter and Lillie Knight and one of the earliest residences in Hyde Park, Tampa's first neighborhood. The House exemplifies Tampa's rising middle class's lifestyle in the Gaslight Era. Originally an "umbrella organization" of local history, Tampa Historical Society, headquartered at the Knight House, is now devoted to interpreting Victorian Era Tampa life through the House, its furnishings, artifacts, and programs, and off-site programs as well. Among the off-site programs, the most popular and unique take place at Oaklawn Cemetery (c.1850, Tampa's first public burying ground)in downtown Tampa. The Society also publishes one of the South's most prestigious journals of local history, The Sunland Tribune.