Pensacola Children's Museum

Cathy Dewey
Posted: 4/25/2020

Hello everyone! My name is Cathy Dewey and I work part time at the Pensacola Historic Trust. But, the current health situation with the Covid-19 certainly has put us all into a major tailspin!!! While our museums have been closed, I have been working on ideas for visitor enhancements that can make our museums even better. While I think we have a lot to offer, every facility can be improved upon and I have some ideas that I am hoping to present. But, in the meantime I want to tell you about my favorite museum at our facility

Though I work at all the museum desks (I do enjoy dressing up in Victorian costumes when working at the Tivoli-High House), my favorite museum to work in is the Pensacola Children’s Museum. The Pensacola Children’s Museum, or PCM as we call it, has numerous interactive exhibits that have been created for the utmost in stimulating a child’s imagination. The PCM has it all from early colonial era exhibits to modern 21st century exhibits. Sit back and I’ll tell you a few of the things that I love about our children’s museum!

I truly enjoy children and love to watch them while they play in our facility. On our first floor, we have a replica of our Historic Village complete with a trading post, a military fort, the LaValle House and a sailing ship, among other activities. Children can put on colonial costumes, sell and buy replica produce and other trading post/farmers market items. They can cook play food in cast iron pots and serve dinners at table in the little play cabin or the fort. They can see how colonial people slept on rope beds, used wheelbarrows to move things around, raised the flag, and churned butter in wooden butter churns. The first floor also has a toddler area with age appropriate interactive toys and a magnet board.

The very best part of working at the PCM is watching the children transform. In the high technology world, we live in these days, the ability to use the imagination has been virtually taken away. When children of this era walk in to the PCM, there is no technology, there is no internet or cell phones or computers. The children are given the opportunity to utilize a seldom used part of their brains…their imagination! I have seen the most fantastic scenarios created in our museum and have never seen the exact same one twice. The awakening of the imagination and what it can produce when challenged is an amazing thing to watch! It is very rewarding to see children of all ages come in, often with a bored look on their face, like “what am I going to do here?” only to see those same children a few minutes later all dressed up in costumes, running around buying and selling play food from the Trading Post and pretending they live in the cabin or are sailing off on the high seas. That makes for a great day for me at the PCM.

Next week I will tell you about some of the exhibits we have on our second floor. Hopefully, reading about our museums while we are all staying safely away from each other, will induce you to come see what we are all about and come watch your children blossom, once our museums are re-opened.

Archive Folder: Newspapers

Spenser Andrade

Posted: 4/24/2020

Newspapers are normally printed daily or weekly. Usually, a newspaper will offer information and opinions about local, regional, and national events, supplying a valuable primary source to researchers. The Hilton-Green Research Room houses a collection of select Northwest Florida newspapers. Two valuable newspapers currently in the collection, although incomplete, include the Colored Citizen and the Gulf Coast Voice. These two newspapers served a target audience: Pensacola’s African American community. The Colored Citizen, a weekly, was printed from 1914 to 1965. With over forty issues, the Hilton-Green Research Room houses the largest known collection of this newspaper. The Gulf Coast Voice, founded as the Pensacola Voice, another weekly newspaper, was printed from 1964 to 2018. 

A portion of the Hilton-Green Research Room’s newspaper

collection. Notice the amount of space the boxes occupy.

However, collecting new newspapers is very problematic. Aging newspapers become extremely fragile, forming tears along creases from old folds and the edges of the papers begin to fray. The paper’s material stability degrades and discolors from acidic degradation caused by chemicals found in the wood pulp and ink, increasing the newspaper's fragility. Newspapers will also deteriorate in humid environments and are susceptible to photolytic degradation (i.e, damage from light). Another problem collecting and housing newspapers is a matter of space. Ideally, newspapers are stored flat inside acid-free containers, taking up a lot of real estate on the storage area’s shelves.

A fantastic way of mitigating a newspaper’s size while enabling preservation is by microfilm. Microfilm is basically an image of a newspaper captured and stored on a reel of film. A viewing machine, aptly called a microfilm reader, is used to project and enlarge the images onto a screen into a readable size. Possibly the only downside to microfilm is navigating the long reels to find a specific issue or article. The Hilton-Green Research Room has a small collection of microfilmed newspapers and a microfilm reader. One notable newspaper in our microfilm collection is the Pensacola Gazette. Printed from the 1820s to the 1860s, the Gazette offers a glimpse into territorial and pre-Civil War Pensacola. We also have a few issues of the Floridian on microfilm, the first newspaper printed in Pensacola after Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821. 

A box of microfilmed Pensacola newspapers. Shown is a reel of Pensacola Gazette

issues from March 1851 to March 1854.

One of the more convenient newspaper resources today is Newspapers.com, a website owned and operated by Ancestry. Newspapers.com contains a vast archive of digitized and searchable newspapers from around the United States. Their archive includes a large collection of the Pensacola News Journal. Founded as two competing papers, the Pensacola Daily News in 1889 and Pensacola Journal in 1897, the newspapers consolidated under Perry Publications in the early 1920s. They continued as separate morning and evening editions, combining into the News-Journal on Sundays. Gannett, the publishers of USA Today, bought the papers in 1969 and changed the papers into today’s familiar singular format in 1985. The Hilton-Green Research Room subscribes to Newspapers.com, which is available on the research computers in the archives.

A screenshot from Newspapers.com showing the Pensacola

Journal’s April 1985 issue announcing the consolidation of the

two papers into its present-day format.

Village Guided Tours

Madeline Colón
Posted: 4/21/2020

Hello everyone! I hope this finds you doing well and learning how to take on each day. Today I wanted to talk about what could easily be the most popular aspect of the Historic Village. That would be our guided tours! When we are open, the tours occur at 11 am and 1 pm on Tuesdays through Saturdays. No matter where the location for the day at work, this is overall the most asked about part of the admission ticket. On this tour, you go to four other houses and Old Christ Church with a tour guide of the Historic Village. Here is a description of each of the locations you can see, which is what you will be able to know once we can offer this to the public again! 

Old Christ Church: Even before I started working here, I became familiar with this location because I saw two of my friends get married here last year! It was a beautiful wedding if you are engaged and looking for a venue, check this one out.

LaValle House: The home was built in 1805 during the Spanish Period by Maria Bonifay and Carlos LaValle, and the inside recreates what the 19th-century homes were like in Pensacola. It was initially on West Government Street, but once purchased by the Historic Pensacola Preservation Board, it relocated to East Church Street. 

Dorr House: Built-in 1871, and the inside is an interpretation of a wealthy family after the Civil War that would have been a result of being a part of a thriving lumber industry. Architecture in the house is Greek Revival and is in the original location facing Seville Square. 

Lear House: Constructed in 1889 at 214 East Zaragoza Street, it is now an interpretation of what homes in the 1920s would have appeared to be. The specific year for this renovation is 1927, and it is what has drawn visitors today.

That is all the information I will give for now, and I hope you will visit the Historical Village to learn even more information very soon.

Colonial Archaeological Trail

Alex Ardoin
Posted: 4/20/2020

If you’ve visited any of our museums at the Historic Trust, you’ll undoubtedly have heard mention of archaeology.  Firstly, what is archaeology?  It is defined as the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.  Not only does the Historic Trust have many archaeological artifacts on display in our museums, we also have created The Colonial Archaeological Trail for our visitors to experience.  The Archaeological Trail is a series of exposed preserves from previous digs that are available to view with information boards alongside them.  The best part is that many of these pieces are outdoors and publicly available while our museums are temporarily closed!

            Available on our website is a brochure that details each preserve and provides a map to help you locate them.  That map will also show you just why so much of Pensacola’s history has been told through archaeology.  You’ll find that the district that the Historic Trust is located in sits almost entirely within three forts from the Spanish and British periods.  Detailed in the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Museum is an archaeology exhibit that gives a look into the efforts of the University of West Florida’s Department of Archaeology at excavating and preserving artifacts.  Some of their pieces are even on display in the exhibit.  If you’re local to Pensacola then you’ll probably remember extensive construction from 2018-2019 along Jefferson Street and Zaragoza Street.  While that construction was taking place, there was also archaeological digging going on as well.  So even more of Pensacola’s history was being unearthed and hopefully coming to our museums to tell us all more about the city’s wonderful history!

Museum of Industry

Skyler Browder
Posted: 4/16/2020

I am sure that everyone here has visited the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum or the Museum of Commerce. They are some of the main museums that everyone enjoys visiting when they visit us, but would you be shocked if I told you there was a diamond in the ruff? The Museum of Industry would be that diamond. The Museum of Industry or MOI is one of the four major museums that we have on site and discusses the industries of Pensacola through the 19th century.

MOI is located right across from the Museum of Commerce and is not hard to miss. In front of the museum is the T.R. Miller Company locomotive with accompanying flat car and caboose. Inside of the museum you will learn about the industries that helped grow Pensacola. The industries include lumberjacking, brick making, railroads, and commercial fishing. The museum itself explains how all of these industries helped propelled Pensacola into a major hub of commerce along the Gulf Coast.

The industries of 19th century Pensacola were intertwined and helped sustain each other, so the museum layout is as well. When you walk into the museum you take a step back in time to see all of the different industries coexisting next to one another. First you see the brick making style of Pensacola. Next, to the right is the docks of Pensacola Bay, and to the left is a fishing boat just coming into harbor. Further to the right, just past the docks you can see the lumber industry. Once you walk through the lumber industry you walk right onto the loading station for the T.R. Miller locomotive sitting right outside, displaying the different stops the train would have traveled.

The Museum of Industry is one of my favorite museums we have. I enjoy being able to understand why Pensacola was, and is, one of the most important cities on the Gulf Coast to this day. While yes, you can learn that from an overall history of the area, the Museum of Industry gives the patron a look at the type of people who made up Pensacola’s past. The people who helped push the lonely frontier city of the 19th century and before were rough and hardworking people, but they paved the way for the people of the 20th century forward to live in a prosperous and beautiful city we live in today.

Hospitality Views: Restaurants

Brittney Anderson
Posted: 4/15/2020

Hello readers! In today’s blog post I will be talking about the effects of the Coronavirus on restaurants. Restaurants make up a huge portion of the hospitality industry, but it seems that the spread of this virus has sucked the hospitality right out of them. Hospitality, by definition, is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Restaurants offer this friendly, personable reception and entertainment by creating special dining in experience. Now that is illegal!

Restaurants are required by law to only offer drive-thru, carry-out, or delivery. However, because of the stay-at-home orders, a lot less people are taking out and many restaurants, especially smaller mom-and-pop restaurants, have had to close their doors indefinitely. So, I think this pandemic brings a really hard question in to play; Do we stay home to stop the possible spread of the virus or do we go to a drive-thru or take out to help these businesses stay afloat?

Not all businesses are closing up shop though. For example, most fast food chains. But this crisis has brought them their own set of problems. Many of these do not offer good paid leave and sick policies in place. One of those food chains is Chipotle.  According to a VOX article, Chipotle workers in New York City walked off the job last week, calling on the fast-casual chain to comply with the city’s paid-sick-leave law. After the backlash Chipotle’s spokesperson said that they were fully complying with New York City’s Sick and Safe Leave Act. However, according to Bloomberg Law, the company settled a wrongful termination lawsuit with New York City last month after an employee said she was illegally fired for using her sick leave.

Museum Store Favorites

Jessie Drossos
Posted: 4/14/2020

Happy Tuesday!  My name is Jessie Drossos and this is my first blog.  I am considered desk staff when the museums are open and would be working the front desk when you enter any of the downtown museums. I am not a student, but I am a semi-retired devotee of history. I have been a ghost tour guide for over 15 years (way before UWF took over the downtown museums). I absolutely love my job! I get to welcome people from all over the world. Literally I’ve meet people from England, Japan, Australia, France, Slovenia, Canada and, of course, from all over the United States. I get to share my love of history and Pensacola. I’m not a native though my dad is from one of the pioneer families of Santa Rosa County. I was originally born in Marietta, Georgia, but I married a native and absolutely think there isn’t a better place to be. I’m always surprised when “locals” come by and have never been to any of our museums. Hopefully, one of the “good” things that have come out of this time that we have had to slow down and stay home is more people will learn about the gem known as the “Historic Pensacola Village.   

Now the museums are not open right now, but I want to talk to you about our gift shops. We have gift shops in four of our museums: T.T. Wentworth, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola Children’s Museum and Tivoli High House. These are great places to pick up some fun and different items. I want to tell you about two such items we have for sale.

The first one is one of my favorites.  As many of may not know, we are number one!  That’s right!  We were the first settlement in North American.  Tristian DeLuna landed here in 1559.  Now many of you may shake your heads and say wait, what about St. Augustine? Well yes, St. Augustine’s is considered to be the first “permanent settlement” in North America, but they weren’t the first settlement.  And we have an awesome t-shit that says just that. It’s says “1. Pensacola.  2. St. Augustine.” It is black and we have it in short sleeves or long sleeves.  

Now I love to read and love books. And we have some great books in our gift shops. One of the books is named “Lost in Heaven”. It is a book about James Polkinghorne, Jr.. Mr. Polknghorne grew up in Pensacola.  He was a bellhop at the famous San Carlos Hotel and graduated from B. T. Washington High School. He was attending college at Florida A & M when he enlisted n the army.  He was sent to Tuskegee where he became one of the famous Tuskegee Airman. His plane disappeared over Italy in 1944. He was 22 years old.  

The writer of the book, Leo Murphy, who also served as an instructor at NAS and has written books about naval aviation history in Pensacola was asked by an interviewer if he knew anything about the history of black aviators. He did recall seeing an old photograph and a 1944 story in the Pensacola News Journal with the headline, “Lost Negro Aviator Dead”. So Mr. Murphy began to research the story about James Polkinghorne who grew up on Reus Street. The story includes interviews with James’ sister, Maggie and will introduce to a very inspirational young man.   

Stay safe and hope to see you soon.