Photos

The front of the Public History Center greets every guest with its Romanesque style windows and brick corbelling.  The plaque above the principal's office reads "Erected 1902", which provides the students with a bit of mental math before we start the day.  The bell at the top of the tower is not only the original bell, it also still works; though the architecture does not allow it to be heard from the inside.

The exciting beginnings of our Three Sisters Garden, the corns, beans, and squash are on their way to becoming a strong symbiotic system for the students to experience first hand.

Our cotton plant with a curious red bug checking it out.

In the Native American Exhibit, our Timucuan Chief is the first character to greet the students.

This mural depicts the daily lives of the Native Americans that lived in Central Florida.  From farming to fishing, the students explore numerous aspects and can even examine replicas of their tools.

Here, we see our model home made out of clay, mud, and palms for a thatched roof.  This would have been used during the evenings or the cold months and would house a family and their goods.  Next to it we have our primitive guard tower.  It has room for two and allows just enough room for arrows to fly from.

Our summer hut demonstrates the simpler architecture from our Native Americans that involved tree limbs and more palms for a thatched roof.  Our hanging raccoon skin starts the conversation of food, clothing, and trade with other tribes and we move on to our kitchen to cover what things they might have eaten and how it was prepared.

 This is a page out of my family's photo album I will be working to restore.  The two people in the brown (unfortunately deteriorated) envelope are my grandfather (Charles Thurston Bendall) and his sister (Katherine B. Fetzer); the date is unknown.

 Here is the World War II U.S. military uniform held in the museum's archives department.

On the upper left lapel you can see the "crossed cannons" 881st Field Artillery pin, indicating this soldier was involved in the Rhineland Campaign in the Spring of 1945.  The colored ribbons over the left breast pocket also have individual meanings.  The top and viewer's bottom left are the same pin - given for the Victory of World War II.  The viewer's bottom right pin is for American Military Service during World War II and was distributed to any who enlisted and served for one (1) year, up until December 31, 1946 (when Truman declared all conflict finished).  The two red lapel pins are unknown but will be updated when discovered.