Tampa Bay History Center is a history museum in Tampa, Florida. Exhibits include coverage of the Tampa Bay area’s first native inhabitants, Spanish conquistadors, and historical figures who shaped the area’s history, as well as a reproduction of a 1920s cigar store. The museum is on the waterfront at 801 Water Street in Tampa’s Channelside District. It opened on January 17, 2009. The History Center building is 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) with 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) of exhibit space.
The Tampa Bay History Center includes three floors of permanent and temporary exhibition space covering 12,000 years of Florida history, with a special focus on Tampa Bay and the Gulf Coast. The History Center has a museum store, classrooms, the Witt Research Center (a branch of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System), a map gallery, an event hall, and the Columbia Cafe (a branch of Ybor City’s Columbia Restaurant). A1 Bed Bug Exterminator Tampa
Exhibits
Touchton Map Library
The Touchton Map Library, the only cartographic center in the Southeast United States, is home to thousands of maps, charts, and other documents. The collection covers more than 500 years of cartography. The library partners with the University of South Florida Libraries to give the general public access to thousands of more maps. The collection is in the process of being digitized and can be viewed online.
Cuban Pathways
This exhibit is a recent addition to the Tampa Bay History Center, running until February 12, 2023, that details the shared history and experiences of Cuban migrants with Florida’s history and how Cuban culture has had an impact on Floridian culture and the history of Cuba created by the people who lived and worked there amid various stages in the country’s past. The exhibition is presented in both English and Spanish and covers topics as sunny as vacations to the political strife that has shaped Cuba into the place it is today.
Treasure Seekers
The Treasure Seekers Exhibit spans much of the museum’s fourth floor. It allows patrons to look at and engage with seafaring technology and practice of the past, including a section focusing on using recreations of astrolabes. These devices tracked celestial bodies to allow sailors and pirates alike the ability to find their way out on the sea. Pirates, conquistadors, and naval history are all explored in this exhibit, with interactive presentations like “The Pirate’s Fate Theater” immersing guests on a voyage on the sea.
Address: 801 Water St, Tampa, FL
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