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Tampa Bay History Center unveils new timeline exhibit
The Tampa Bay History Center unveiled its new Tampa Bay Timeline exhibit on Friday, offering guests a chronological journey through thousands of years of West Central Florida history. FOX 13's Aaron Mesmer reports.
TAMPA, Fla - The Tampa Bay History Center unveiled its new Tampa Bay Timeline exhibit on Friday, offering guests a chronological journey through thousands of years of West Central Florida history.
What we know:
The exhibit begins more than 14,000 years ago with Indigenous communities who first settled the region.
"We had people living here, hunting, living, building their communities here," said Michelle Hearn, the director of curatorial affairs at the Tampa Bay History Center.
The timeline then moves into the era of Spanish exploration and influence, highlighting how early settlers shaped the region’s economy.
"The cattle industry and citrus industry, both of those things, were brought here by the Spanish 500 years ago," said Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.
From there, the exhibit traces key milestones such as Florida statehood, the establishment of Fort Brooke, the cigar factory boom in Ybor City, and the waves of immigration and industrial growth that followed into the 20th century.
All of it is displayed in a newly installed timeline exhibit that opened to the public this week.
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"It’s a place that people can orient themselves, get to know the region and see their stories and their family stories told here," said Audrey Chapuis, the president and CEO of the Tampa Bay History Center.
Curators say the display highlights the development of transportation, major industries and civil rights movements, as well as the role immigrants played in shaping the region.
"They’re going to learn about the development of our industries, our transportation system, our different civil rights movement, how the different immigrants who came here made our city so rich," Hearn said.
The timeline includes more than 75 artifacts chosen from the History Center’s collection of more than 100,000 items. Artifacts range from early Indigenous history to the first Gasparilla festival in 1904, the opening of the Don CeSar in St. Petersburg, milestones in women’s suffrage and civil rights and recent events like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Lightning championships.
According to the History Center, the exhibit also tracks dramatic population growth, from roughly 9,000 people in the region to more than 3.4 million today.
What they're saying:
The first group to tour the exhibit was a field trip from Pinecrest Elementary School.
"To actually see that timeline on a wall and see how things played out in history, and we talk about a lot the importance of that, why we’re where we are today, and that timeline is a part of that," said Debbie Cook, a fourth grade teacher at Pinecrest Elementary School.
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Curators note that Tampa Bay’s story goes back even further than human settlement, with an ammonite fossil that dates to at least 66 million years ago.
Why you should care:
History Center leaders say the Tampa Bay Timeline is designed to anchor a visitor’s experience and help connect generations of stories into a single narrative.
The Tampa Bay History Center says the exhibit plays a central role in its third-floor galleries and helps visitors understand how the region has evolved socially, culturally, and economically.
What's next:
As Tampa Bay continues to grow, curators say the timeline could grow along with it.
"That’s the beautiful thing about history is that we can go back and see where we’ve come from, and it kind of gives us more of an anchoring idea of where we’re going," Hearn said.
The Source: Information for this story came from interviews with Tampa Bay History Center staff and visitors.