The Legacy: South Florida Museum - Softcover

Thomas Peter Bennett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761852611 ISBN 13: 9780761852612

Publisher: University Press Of America, 2010

Synopsis

The Legacy: South Florida Museum is an account of the origins, founding, and development in twentieth-century Florida of a people's museum about archeology, Spanish exploration, manatees, and space. As a museum founded in the immediate post-World War II era, with its origins in the prehistoric past, its narrative reflects Florida's changes through Spanish exploration, statehood, tourism, endangered manatees, and space development over a thousand years. The Legacy is a story of volunteerism, in the spirit of voluntary action for the common good, by dedicated individuals. It leads to today's South Florida Museum and its several facilities, including the Bishop Planetarium, Parker Manatee Aquarium, and Spanish Plaza.For more information, please see the following article from The Herald-Tribune.http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101130/Article/11301026/1238? p=1&tc=pg

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Peter Bennett, a Florida native and graduate of Florida State University, received his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. He was an assistant professor at Harvard, served as professor and chairman of biological sciences at Florida State University and then as special assistant to the president, before beginning museum work as president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1976-86). He then served as professor and director of the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History (1986-96), as president of Science Service and publisher of Science News (1996-98), and as executive director of the South Florida Museum (1998-2002). The author of many science, history and education articles, several science textbooks, and poetry anthologies, Bennett resides in Bradenton with his wife Gudrun, pursues academic and museum interests, and writes.

Review:

Anticipated... (Robert McCracken Peck, senior fellow, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia)

No stranger to Florida, Dr. Peter Bennett is also no stranger to museums. He has been president of the oldest natural history museum in the western hemisphere, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, as well as the director of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville and significantly, the South Florida Museum. This meticulously researched, historical account by a noted scholar and historian of science, weaves together the lives of extraordinary people from disparate walks of life who created a sense of community around the founding and growth of an iconic museum. The museum connects them all and tells their story ―- the history of their place and its inhabitants. In this way, Bradenton and the South Florida Museum serve as a metaphor for Florida and all her cultural institutions. (professor and director, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, Douglas S. Jones, professor and director, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL)

A marvelous account of a museum and its constituency that together created a legacy, one that continues to educate us about Florida's past and present. Bennett's book is a great read. (Jerald T. Milanich, PhD, author of Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities: A New York City Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Florida)

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press Of America
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0761852611
• ISBN 13: 9780761852612
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308