Tampa, a relative youngster among the nation’s cities, turns 138 on Tuesday, July 15. A day earlier, there’s a birthday celebration at City Hall, complete with cake.
That’s one highlight of Archives Awareness Week, the annual celebration of the city’s history and the places, artifacts, and documents that keep it alive. From July 13th through 19th, 14 free public events throughout Tampa will offer opportunities such as learning how to interpret colonial maps; seeing old film and archives detailing the evolution of Tampa International Airport; touring and learning the history of the beautiful old Sacred Heart Catholic Church downtown; and visiting Tampa Bay History Center’s “Invisible Immigrants’’ exhibit to learn about the massive migration of Spaniards to the United States around the turn of the 20th century.
Archives aren’t just documents, notes Tampa Archives and Records Manager Jennifer Dietz, who organizes the annual event. An archive can be a painting, map, vintage clothes, photos, films, and more.
“It can take a lot of different forms, but basically what it really is, is a celebration of Tampa’s history,’’ Dietz says.
Recognizing the need to preserve Tampa’s unique history, city officials founded the City of Tampa Archives in 1987. Archives Awareness Week, when the city and its community partners opened their doors for special events showing the historical value of archives, was an annual event from 1992 to 2000. Dietz says her boss, City Clerk Shirley Foxx-Knowles, wanted to revive the week-long celebration, and it’s been happening every year since 2014.
The week kicks off at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 13, at the Henry B. Plant Museum inside the University of Tampa campus’ main building, Plant Hall. Known for its iconic minarets, the historic building opened in 1891 as the Tampa Bay Hotel, a seasonal resort for wealthy tourists. Built by Plant, who brought the railroad to the west coast of Florida in 1884, the hotel employed porters who carried guests around the grounds in rickshaws.
The museum takes up the first floor of Plant Hall. The rooms remain furnished as they were when Teddy Roosevelt stayed there on his way to Cuba with the Rough Riders to fight in the Spanish-American War. The Plant Museum's Archives Awareness Week exhibit, “Dressed for Success: Fashioning Manhood at the Tampa Bay Hotel,” harkens back to the building’s roots as a hotel.
“That exhibit -- which is a really fun exhibit, I will say – what it does is it uses a variety of men who worked at the Tampa Bay Hotel in the 1890s to try and understand something that historians refer to as the crisis of masculinity,’’ says Charles McGraw Groh, Plant Museum Interim Director and UT Chair of History, Geography, and Legal Studies.
During the 1890s, he explains, the United States faced its worst depression up to that time.
“A lot of young men, and we’re talking specifically about middle-class men or men who aspired to be middle class, were really afraid that they were not going to be able to have the same kind of success that their fathers did,’’ Groh says.
Middle-class jobs were disappearing and young women were beginning to compete with men for entry-level white-collar jobs such as clerical positions.
“What the exhibit looks at is the way in which men of that generation tried to eventually kind of reassert themselves, reassert manhood,’’ Groh says. “And some of the things are very entertaining, because it’s things like the origin of body-building in the United States, its the origin of men getting mixed up in boxing, very physical kinds of contact sports.’’
In keeping with the theme of Archives Awareness Week, a look back at 100 years ago, Groh will talk about the exhibit and also address the Tampa Bay Hotel workers’ lives in 1925. For the day of the archives awareness event, the exhibit will be called “Manhood at Work in 1925.’’
Here are the other events:
July 13, 3 p.m., Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 509 N. Florida Ave.
Docents from the Sacred Heart Historical Society will talk about the history and conduct a tour of the oldest Catholic Church on the west coast of Florida.
July 14, 3 p.m., City Council chambers, third floor of old City Hall, 315 E. Kennedy Blvd.
It’s Tampa’s birthday celebration. The event will also celebrate the life of Frances Henriques, who was the first woman elected as Tampa’s city clerk. Fred Hearns, the Tampa Bay History Center’s Curator of Black History, will talk about pivotal events in the city 100 years ago. Birthday cake will be served!
July 15, 11 a.m., J.C Newman Cigar Company, 2701 N. 16
th Street
Company historian Holden Rasmussen and Drew Newman, fourth-generation
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Provided by JC Newman Cigar CoHistoric photo of the Sanchez y Haya Hotel owner of the venerable cigar company, will talk about the restoration of the 115-year-old Sanchez y Haya Hotel building, across the street from the company’s restored El Reloj cigar factory, and conduct a tour of the restoration project.
July 15, 6 p.m., Black History Museum, 1213 N. Central Ave.
Learn how your personal artifacts can become part of preserving Tampa’s Black heritage, with insights from the Tampa Bay History Center staff.
July 16, 10 a.m. City Center at Hanna Avenue, 2555 E. Hanna Ave.
(Event Canceled)
The City of Tampa has announced that this event is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. Learn about the “Story of Tampa,” a large mural in the lobby of the Tampa City Center, and hear the story of its creation from the artist, Lynn Ash. Guests receive a complimentary “Story of Tampa” poster.
July 16, 5:30 p.m. Black History Museum, 1213 N. Central Ave.
Learn about the legacy of Booker T. Washington School over the last 100 years from Fred Hearns, Curator of Black History at the Tampa Bay History Center, and Ashley Morrow, Program Manager at the Tampa Black History Museum.
July 17, 11 a.m. Robert W. Saunders Sr. Library,1505 N. Nebraska Ave.
Take an archiving class with the Tampa Museum of Art. Build a professional portfolio of your work. The free event is geared toward adults. Registration is recommended. Go to
Archiving Class
July 17, 2 p.m., University of South Florida Libraries, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, First Floor, 125G
See images, records, oral histories, and maps of the historic Progress Village community from USF Libraries Digital Initiatives Unit, in collaboration with Planner-In-Residence Amber Dickerson and a MURP (Master of Urban & Regional Planning) studio class. Learn about the project’s launch and future plans.
July 17, 5 p.m. Tampa International Airport, Main Terminal Event Space, Level 3
See artifacts detailing the evolution of Tampa International Airport, including an artist’s conception of the airport’s current terminal and a film showing the airport’s early days.
July 18, 11 a.m. City Center at Hanna Avenue, 2555 E. Hanna Ave.
Join community leaders and members of the Hillsborough County Historical Advisory Council to unveil historical markers for Marti-Colon Cemetery, St. Joseph Aid Cemetery/Montana City Cemetery, and Woodlawn Cemetery.
July 18, 2 p.m. Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Water Street
Learn from curator Michelle Hearn about the mass migration of Spanish immigrants to Tampa and other cities in the U.S. in the late 19
th and early 20
th centuries as she discusses the exhibit, “Invisible Immigrants: Spaniards in the U.S. (1868 – 1945).’’
Admission is free with online registration, but limited to 25 people. To register, go to
Invisible Immigrants
July 19, 11 a.m., Centro Asturiano, 1913 N. Nebraska Ave.
A free brunch and mimosas accompany Tampa native, author, and historian Sarah McNamara’s discussion with Preserve the ‘Burg Executive Director Many Leto about McNamara’s book “Ybor City. Crucible of the Latina South.” The event includes the debut of a short film about the 1937 anti-fascist March in Tampa. To RSVP, go to
Latina Legacies.
July 19, 3 p.m., John F. Germany Library, 900 N. Ashley Drive
Colonial Florida: Exploring language and history through maps. Learn how to read colonial maps and what the abbreviations on them mean.
For more information, go to Archives Awareness Week