Florida

In 1927, American entrepreneur Juan T. Trippe founded what would later become Pan American World Airways, one of the world's most prominent airlines of the 20th century. From the very first airmail flight flown from Key West to Cuba, Trippe provided leadership and innovation that put Pan Am at the top of the commercial airline industry. His global pioneering spirit expanded the world's reach for the masses while at the same time provided the most glamorous of air-travel experiences. The rise and fall of an American empire is examined in this full-color postcard history of Pan Am.

The most southern state has more than its share of Civil War stories. In January 1861, Florida militia forces captured the old Spanish Castillo de San Marcos, then known as Fort Marion, from the single Union soldier who guarded it. In 1862, Union forces recaptured it without a single shot fired. Union general Edward Moody McCook--later minister to Hawaii--accepted the surrender of Tallahassee on May 10, 1865. On May 13, he read the Emancipation Proclamation to an assembled crowd of white Floridians and former slaves on the steps of the Knott House in the city. Authors Nick Wynne and Joe Knetsch detail a Civil War moment for each date on the calendar. Learn a lesson a day or a month at a time.

Orange Park, Florida, once known as Laurel Grove Plantation, was incorporated in 1879. Luring people with its healthy climate, therapeutic spring, and charming views of the St. Johns River, the town has played host to the rich and famous as well as the poor and humble. In early days, steamboats carried the likes of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pres. Ulysses S. Grant, William Astor, and B.J. Johnson to the grand Hotel Marion for recreational or health benefits. Later, one of Florida's first integrated schools thrived just yards away. Important scientific studies were conducted at the town's "Monkey Farm" for 35 years. Orange Park, far more than a bedroom community for Jacksonville, has all the charm of small-town America.

Once known as Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande has become one of the best places to vacation and live.

Life on Gasparilla Island once had a very different rhythm. With a past intimately tied to Charlotte Harbor and the rich fishing grounds it provided, Gasparilla Island was, in its early history, the site of a small fishing village and a commercial fishery. The discovery of phosphate deposits in the region and the introduction of the railroad soon increased the pace of life, and a thriving port was built on the island's south end. As the twentieth century dawned and the Florida boom loomed on the horizon, the town of Boca Grande began to hum with the activity of a rapidly growing population. Though much has changed through the years--the little fishing village has vanished, the estimable Boca Grande Hotel is gone, and the once bustling port is now a state park--much of the region's unique history continues to inform the modern landscape. The venerable lighthouse, constructed in 1890, now serves as a museum of local history, and the grand Gasparilla Inn still stands firmly upon its original 1911 site. Those who now call Boca Grande home cherish it for the same island magic that fishermen and railroad officials recognized long ago: its unspoiled natural beauty, inviting climate, world-class fishing, and welcoming community.

These mailable vintage-photograph postcards celebrate the history of Marco Island, the largest of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands. Marco Island projects prominently from Florida's mainland at the peninsula's southwestern fringe, where the waters of the Everglades and the Gulf of Mexico commingle. Its tropical climate, verdant landscape, unique topography, and abundant wildlife sustained prehistoric Native American cultures for centuries. The first pioneer settlers arrived in 1870, carving out a niche on the harsh Florida frontier. Bustling villages soon sprang up on the island, bolstered by strong leaders and economies centered around farming and fishing. The crash of Florida's land boom, along with the Great Depression, devastating hurricanes, and a series of failed developments, ultimately stunted the island's growth. Most of Marco Island was sold to the Deltona Corporation in 1964, which transformed the island into a place its early residents might find unrecognizable.

Lauderdale-By-The-Sea depicts the engaging history of this oceanfront community.

Located on Florida's Gold Coast, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea is noted for its beach activities, living reef system, and family-oriented lifestyle. The quiet beauty of the sea and sand amid friendly low-rise lodgings and quaint stores and restaurants draws visitors to this thriving paradise year-round. Lauderdale-By-The-Sea developed slowly around the original platted land set down by William F. Morang in 1924 as he and others promoted a land boom. The completion of the Flagler Railroad by 1900 paved the way for regional growth. Lauderdale-By-The-Sea lacked a railroad terminal and remained undeveloped in the early years. Melvin I. Anglin pioneered in chartering the town in 1927 and became its first mayor. Two hurricanes and the 1929 stock market crash burst the real estate bubble, leading to the demise of the charter in 1933. In 1947, citizens drew up a new charter that was certified by the state legislature two years later. Construction of the Anglin Pier in 1941 and the Commercial Boulevard Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in 1965 broke down the isolation of the town. Annexation of the unincorporated area north to Pompano Beach completed its growth cycle.

Bartow, the city of oaks and azaleas, where history has come alive since 1851, holds a long and colorful history. Forests of oak and pine flank the tranquil stream, which was named Peace by the Spanish Conquistadors. The site, untouched except by the footprint of the Seminole and untamed wildlife, drew the pioneer Blount family to give permanence to a fledgling community by building a place of refuge. First called Fort Blount and alternately Peace Creek, the Civil War and the munificence of cattleman Jacob Summerlin denominated Bartow and ensured its establishment as the county seat of Polk County. Cattle, citrus, railroads, and phosphate, coupled with hard-working, enterprising citizens, provided the catalyst to economic independence. Through war, peace, depression, and boom, Bartow's history is reflected in its places and in the people whose deeds built a city in the wilderness. Images of America: Bartow contains a portrait of history in the continuing growth of a city unveiled by photographic images.

At the end of the Civil War, the area around Charlotte County was the southernmost frontier in the United States. Americans rushed south for the promise of cheap land in paradise. Albert W. Gilchrist peddled that dream with great fanfare, but his outsized legacy as a driver of the area's growth comes with considerable baggage. As Charlotte County strives to reinvent itself once again, historian Ted Ehmann provides a historical lost-and-found where heroes fall from grace and new heroes are created. It's an account that predates the arrival of the railroad by millennia, weaving its way from the Calusa kingdom to present day, stripping the remnants of myth created by early developers' utopian promises.

Established as the state's twenty-third county by the Florida legislature in 1843, Wakulla's rich history dates back to the Paleo-Indian period, when groups of Native Americans made use of and enjoyed the region's abundant natural resources. Today, over three-quarters of the county's total acreage is contained within wildlife refuge areas that protect tens of thousands of acres of timber, marshlands, and coastal estuaries, creating an unmatched natural beauty that is Wakulla's greatest asset.

The port area of St. Marks, host to the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition in 1528 and the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539, was an important shipping port to Middle Florida and South Georgia. Wakulla County was also once the site of long forgotten settlements such as Magnolia and Port Leon, ports along the St. Marks River that played important roles in the economic development of Middle Florida during the antebellum period. Home to outlets to the Gulf of Mexico along Apalachee Bay such as Panacea, Spring Creek, and Shell Point, Wakulla also boasts one of the world's largest and deepest freshwater springs and a premier tourist attraction. Capturing the spirit of Wakulla's pioneering settlers, as well as the county's magnificent landscape, this one-of-a-kind pictorial retrospective showcases the region's singular past through vintage photographs and other visual memorabilia.

Miami's architecture is world renowned, but many historic treasures have been forgotten to time.

A Cold War missile base lies covered in graffiti. The Richmond Naval Air Station: a former blimp base, destroyed by hurricane in 1945. Homestead's old Aerojet complex: originally used in the testing and construction of experimental rockets, slowly demolished as part of a project to revitalize the Everglades. The Miami Marine Stadium: declared unsafe after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and stands abandoned today. Author David Bulit, creator of the blog "Abandoned Florida," revives the history and secrets of the Magic City's vanishing gems.

This pictorial history of Lake Okeechobee illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped the area's cultural and natural history.

From the Calusa Indians to the travelers who used boats for transport in the early 1900s and up to the prosperous farms and cattle ranches of today, the Everglades has evolved into a mecca for fishing, birding, and hiking. The smell of orange blossoms entices the settler to an untamed land where bears, deer, and snakes still inhabit the wilderness and where alligator hunting and fishing are still popular sports. Lake Okeechobee is 110 miles around from Pahokee to Canal Point, Okeechobee, Lakeport, Moore Haven, Clewiston, South Bay, and Belle Glade. To cross Florida from the Atlantic to the Gulf, a boat starts in Stuart and ends at Port Mayaca, crossing Lake Okeechobee to the Moore Haven lock and out the Caloosahatchee River past Lake Hicpochee and west to Fort Myers. Around Lake Okeechobee presents images from the Clewiston Museum, Lawrence E. Will Museum, state archives, and private collections, painting a history of the boom and bust, the boaters and farmers, and the cattlemen and ranchers who have settled and raised their families here.

Under a canopy of moss-covered live oaks rests Palmetto. The city occupies a natural peninsula bounded by the Manatee River and Terra Ceia Bay. The first settlers claimed land under the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, and despite the ravages of Seminole raids and epidemics, the heartiest of the pioneers established Palmetto's reputation as a thriving farming and fishing community. In 1868, Samuel Sparks Lamb named the city "Palmetto," inspired by the abundant foliage of palmetto bushes that reminded him of his birthplace in South Carolina. He envisioned a city with a grand thoroughfare and a sturdy wharf jutting into the mile-wide Manatee River, which Lamb considered the gateway for Palmetto's agricultural commerce. Palmetto became a city in 1897, but by the early 1900s, the railroad shifted the center of activity from the waterfront to the train depot, located on Tenth Street. Palmetto's appearance and identity have changed over the years, but its residents continue to regard the Manatee River and Terra Ceia Bay as the community's grandest assets.

This first comprehensive history of the Jews of Florida from colonial times to the present is a sweeping tapestry of voices.

Despite not being officially allowed to live in Florida until 1763, Jewish immigrants escaping expulsions and exclusions were among the earliest settlers. They have been integral to every facet of Florida's growth, from tilling the land and developing early communities to boosting tourism and ultimately pushing mankind into space. The Sunshine State's Jews, working for the common good, have been Olympians, Nobel Prize winners, computer pioneers, educators, politicians, leaders in business and the arts and more, while maintaining their heritage to help ensure Jewish continuity for future generations. This rich narrative - accompanied by 700 images, most rarely seen - is the result of three-plus decades of grassroots research by author Marcia Jo Zerivitz, giving readers an incomparable look at the long and crucial history of Jews in Florida.