Want to learn more about our heritage? Read back issues of our popular magazine, South Florida History. The links lead to PDFs of the issues. Please be patient; some of the links are large, but worth the wait.
1 (Winter 1989)
Tamiami Trail Blazers: Blazing the Tamiami Trail
by Steve Glassman
For 19 days in 1923 the Trail Blazers struggled to prove an automobile could make it across the Everglades.
Broward’s Mural: Off the Wall in Broward
by Stuart McIver
Colorful mural depicts the history of the Gold Coast.
Key Biscayne Continued
by Muriel M. Curtis
The Author brings her story of Key Biscayne into the age of condominiums.
Through the Lens
Photographs show celebrities visiting southeast Florida.
On the Plaza
by Lee Aberman
The exhibition, Mosaic: the Jewish Experience in Florida, involved research, design and construction.
2 (Spring 1989)
Traveling to Saba: The Mysterious Island of Saba
by Richard Neil Shrout
Saba is an enigmatic little island in the Dutch Antilles: no beaches, rivers or lakes, but plenty of Mysteries.
Land by the Gallon: The Florida Fruitlands Company and the Progresso Land Lottery of 1911
by Paul George
People often joke about purchasing swamp land–unless, of, course, they bought from the Progresso Land Company.
Robert James Rudd: Cypress Furniture Maker
by Jan Rosenberg
What Would it Cost Today?
by Don Gaby
Were the nickel beer or 25 cent lunch really a good deal?
3 (Summer 1989)
Keep ’em Flying: Riddle’s “Wild Blue Yonder”
by Steve Glassman
Embry-Riddle School of Aviation trained a tenth of America’s World War II pilots at Miami and Arcadia.
Delivering the Mail: Key Largo Letter Drop
by Valerie Lassman
Old Tavernier Post Offices recalls early days in the Upper Keys.
Before Metrorail: Clang Clang Clang-Miami’s Early Streetcars
by Ed Ridolph
Miami’s first streetcar rolled down the tracks in 1906.
4 (Fall 1989)
Bimini, Bahamas–Hemingway’s Island in the Stream
by Jane Day
After a bare-knuckled bout with Colliers publisher Joseph F. Knapp, a Biminite calypso band celebrated Ernest Hemingway’s boxing prowess by composing “The Big Fat Slob.”
A Report to the Home Office: The ’26 Storm Revisited
Read an anonymous account of the 1926 hurricane.
Childhood at the Barnacle
by Deborah A. Coulombe and Herbert L. Hiller
Patty and Wirth Munroe felt no misgivings about life at the Barnacle. They had a big place and they loved the water. They were each other’s best friend. They found their own play things, and made their own fun.
1 (Winter 1990)
Birds and Trees: Saving the Corkscrew
by Carl W. Buchheister
Read how Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary escaped the lumberman’s saw.
Born in the Boom: the Ups and Downs of a Broward Town
by Martha Munzer
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea got its start just before the “bust.”
Painting the Town: Arts Festival Started as “Left Bank Affair”
by Ruth B. Altman
The Coconut Grove Arts Festival has grown into one of the nation’s largest outdoor art shows.
Battling the Bureaucracy: Staking a Claim in Early Miami
by Dr. Paul George and Joseph Knetsch
1843 settlers on Little River faced an unsympathetic land office.
2 (Spring 1990)
Welcome to Cap’s Place
by Emily Perry Dieterich
This 62-year-old Lighthouse Point restaurant has counted as its guests the famous and the infamous, from Franklin Roosevelt to Meyer Lansky.
The Bimini Bay Rod and Gun Club
by Jane S. Day
In 1919 Miami’s tomato king, Thomas J. Peters, envisioned a three-story hotel with 100 rooms on the island of Bimini.
Keys Folk
by Stetson Kennedy
This reprint from Kennedy’s Palmetto Country explores the folkways of the Florida Keys in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
3 (Summer 1990) – Folklife
Caribbean Music in South Florida
by Dr. Laurie Sommers
As Miami’s role in the Caribbean grows, so does the diversity of Caribbean music found in South Florida.
African American and West Indian Folklife in South Florida
by Dr. Joyce Jackson
The folklife of the African American and West Indian communities in South Florida provides both groups important ties to their pasts.
Key Largo to Marathon: A Report on the Folklife of the Upper Keys
by Brent Cantrell
Since the last general survey of Keys culture in the 1930s, a lot has changed in the upper Keys. Museum research Brent Cantrell discovered that traditional culture is alive and well.
4 (Fall 1990)
When Coontie Was King: Life on the Miami Frontier
by Joe Knetsch and Paul George
Letters from the Ferguson brothers depict life on the Miami River during the mid-1850s.
Chokoloskee’s Oldest Structure
by Emily Dieterich
Smallwood’s Store remains an institution on the island.
Mamie Called Herself Progress
by Emily Dieterich
Ted Smallwood’s progressive wife pushed hard for bridge from Chokoloskee to the mainland.
Progress
by Mamie Smallwood
Mamie Smallwood’s letters, circa 1925, recall West Coast Seminoles.
Through the Lens
Photographs document contemporary Jewish traditional arts in Florida.
