Sharon's Favorite Local History Links:
PART ONE: FLORIDA AND TAMPA BAY AREA RESOURCES:
A. PINELLAS COUNTY HISTORY ONLINE:
COUNTYWIDE PROJECT TO INDEX LOCAL HISTORY RESOURCES IN PINELLAS COUNTY:
- Pinellas County History - Project of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, which
includes St. Petersburg Public Library, Clearwater Public Library, Largo Public Library, and Tarpon Springs Public Library, and the
Safety Harbor Public Library in conjunction with the other libraries funded by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium. Originally funded by the United States Congress through the
Library Technical Services Act, this example of online collaborative knowledge building is a complied index of local history resources available in
public libraries thoughout Pinellas County. If your library does not have the item indexed, please place your requests for interlibrary loans
through your public library reference desk.
B. INFORMATION FROM ST. PETERSBURG CITY GOVERNMENT:
- Official City of St. Petersburg History Online City website with lots of historical information.
- St. Petersburg Historical Photos
The City of St. Peterburg keeps adding old pictures and postcards of St. Petersburg to this website.
- Maritime History of St. Petersburg, FL
D. INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC LIBRARIES:
- St. Petersburg Public LibraryThe St. Petersburg Main Library, 3745 9th Avenue N.,
has a Florida Room with approximately a hundred years newspaper microfilms,
The Florida Index to the St. Petersburg Times and Independent newspapers, and various vintage magazines owned by the library,
old city directories, plat maps and many other resources for studying St. Petersburg history. Some of the magazines in the
library include the Journal of Southern History, Florida Trend, Florida Conservation News, and St. Petersburg Magazine which contain
historical articles and information for St. Petersburg and around the State of Florida. Eventually the Florida
Index will be fully indexed online.
- Largo Public Library Has many items in it's
vertical files as well as the largest
genealogical research collection in Pinellas County.
E. LOCAL MUSEUMS:
- St. Petersburg Museum of History
Located in downtown St. Petersburg, on the Second Avenue approach to The Pier,
this museum has many artifacts from St. Petersburg's past.
- Heritage Village
This is Pinellas county's Historical Museum, which includes a village of
vintage Pinellas County buildings moved to the site to form a community
of long ago.
- Dunedin
Historical Society
- Gulfport
Historical Museum
TAMPA AND HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY:
- Tampa Bay History Center
- Tampa History
- Tampa/Hillsborough History
- History of Tampa by the Cuban Club - Coming Soon!
- History of the NFL Tampa Bay Bucaneers Football Team
F. NEIGHBORHOOD EFFORTS AT PRESERVING CITY HISTORY:
- Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood in St. Petersburg
- Old Northeast Historic Assn.This neighborhood association is
trying to preserve the Old Northeast Historic District.
- Historic St. Petersburg Local website promoting neighborhood
preservation and restoration of buildings over 50 years old.
- Olive B. McLin Community
History Project History project by the University of South Florida
showcasing St. Petersburg's African American Community.
-
Historic Uptown Neighborhoods An active group of neighborhoods
which are restoring their old homes and buildings,
and providing community activities to bring neighbors together.
- Historic Kenwood Neighborhood description from
the City of St. Petersburg site.
- Historic Kenwood Neighborhood Association Website Lots of current information
about preservation efforts in the neighborhood.
- North Downtown/Mirror Lake Neighborhood - from City of St. Petersburg website.
- Grand Central District - Coming Soon! Watch this historic neighborhood revitalize itself with new businesses dressed up in historic facades.
- Driftwood Neighborhood - Unusual beauty and historic
events in this tree-laden neighborhood on Big Bayou.
- Pinellas Heritage, a new preservation group in Pinellas County interested in restoring churches,
cemeteries and homes.Their website states "Pinellas Heritage was founded to promote and increase awareness of local cultural, heritage and historic
preservation endeavors and initiatives."
- Vintage St. Pete. Sponsored by
Pinellas Heritage, this website announces group activities and fundraising for
local preservation, including Wine Tastings and Movies in the Park, designed to
bring neighbors together who care about our community.
G. OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES FOR PINELLAS COUNTY HISTORY:
- St_Pete_History Yahoo Group Many photos of downtown on this site taken by Sharon Centanne
- USS Ottawa Navy
Civil War Re-enacting Unit This is the official website of Union Navy re-enactors in Pinellas County.
Information about Civil War re-enactments and links to other local units.
- Our Home's History Publication by City of St. Petersburg on Researching the History
of your home.
- Bibliography of books
about St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and other Florida History
B.OTHER FLORIDA LOCAL HISTORY ONLINE:
-
University of South Florida Florida Studies Program
-
History Museum of South Florida
PART TWO:
SAMPLE OUT OF STATE LOCAL HISTORY ONLINE:
A. BUFFALO, NEW YORK HAS A LOT OF LOCAL HISTORY ONLINE:
This first link is a compliation on my website of my favorite Buffalo
sites for Local History. Some of those sites will be repeated here for the
presentation, as I want to highlight some of their successes:
-
Sharon's Favorite Buffalo NY Local History Links
- Buffalo Archtecture and History
This extensive site is put together by Chuck LaChuisa, a high school
teacher at Buffalo, Honors High School. He teaches his students architecture,
history and webpage design, and they help him build this large site documenting
Buffalo's built environment and it's history.
-
Buffalo as an Architectural Museum
by The Preservation Coalition of Erie County.
- The Preservation Coalition of Erie County
Local preservation group and their efforts to save the historic built environment of Buffalo.
-
Buffalo History Works: History and Culture from the Queen City of the Great Lakes
-
Buffalo Photo Collection This site collects old photos of Buffalo and posts them online, similar
to what the City of St. Petersburg is doing locally.
-
Past Tracks: A History of Railroading in Buffalo
This site documents the growth, development and decline of railroading
as a major industry in Buffalo. Maybe your town has a business or industry
you would like to document, perhaps tourism, or citrus or military.
PART THREE:
SHARING YOUR RESEARCH WITH THE COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD -
ONLINE COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE BUILDING FOR LOCAL HISTORY:
Online collaborative Knowledge Building is a fancy term for building
a website by committee. Folks all contribute what they have, and
put it all together on the web. This works well for local history, as
different folks have different experiences and contributions to help
add up to the total picture. Often, the collaboration is done through
email and listservs, with members uploading old photos, memories, and
information for collective display online.
Buffalo, New York examples: Focus on Old East Side Neighborhood
A. NEIGHBORHOODS:
Many of us on a listserv we started for the Old East Side of Buffalo have
contributed our research to this website put together by my fourth cousin,
Jillaine Smith, whom by the way I have never met except online.
-
Buffalo East Side Working Group - New website at Rootsweb for a new and growing group of researchers
interested in the genealogy, local history, geography, sociology, culture, ecology, and demographics of the Old East
Side of Buffalo, NY.
B. CHURCHES:
Members of churches and other religious organizations often like to
keep a history of their building, their organization and even records of their
ceremonies, like baptisms, marriages and funerals. Most religious groups have some
kind of archives or their vital records are kept onsite. Local historians can use
these records to help develop a picture of demographics of the neighborhood at the
time the records were kept. We can also archive photos of the various architechtural
features of the buildings for future generations and for documentation incase restoration
becomes necessary.
My friend Joe Hayden in Buffalo, NY has done a fantastic job documenting houses of
worship in the Buffalo, NY area, with some "then" photos as well as some "now" photos.
I have worked with him to provide information on a few of the churches my family
attended, and he took the pictures for me when I decided to try this for the
church and school I attended in the 1950s.
You can see Joe's extensive site on Buffalo, NY churches at:
- Buffalo's Faith Elevators - History and Photos of Buffalo Churches by
Joe Hayden
You can see my efforts to document St. Aloysius in Cheektowaga, NY at:
-
St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Cheektowaga - my memories of the church and school I attend as a child with additonal
info from Kathy Kovalek and pictures by Joe Hayden
C. SCHOOLS:
Some folks are interested in the history of a particular school, often alumni groups
and local history museums and school systems. Here are some school websites in Buffalo
that include details about the construction and the architect as well as good pictures
of the architecture and how it fits into the community:
-
Kensington High School - by
The Preservation Coalition of Erie County
- The high school my parents attended and where I would
have attended if we had not moved to Florida.
- School 23 - This is the
grade school my mother attended, which now is torn down. I put together this memorial
webpage, with comments from folks who were involved with the school.
D. MAPS:
There are online maps of the commmunity you are researching,
and sometimes you can find historical maps as well. These are often posted by
historical societies, genealogy groups, university researchers and sometimes city governments.
The BuffaloHistory listserv I belong to found these links to old maps of Buffalo.
Sometimes people will scan old maps they find at the historical society and put
them on a website, so Google around to see what you can find!
HISTORIC MAPS OF BUFFALO FOUND ONLINE:
- Maps of Buffalo
Neighborhoods - by the Engineering Dept. at the University of Buffalo
-
1902 Map of Buffalo with buildings drawn in from the Library of Congress
-
1896 Map of Buffalo - which shows what Buffalo looked like three years before
my grandfather was born.
PART FOUR: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROVIDE LOCAL HISTORY INFO ONLINE FOR
YOUR LIBRARY AND IN YOUR COMMUNITY:
A. LIBRARIES CAN PUBLISH ONLINE RESOURCES FOR THEIR OWN LOCAL HISTORY:
-
Roots--Local and Regional Resources BECPL Public Librarian Cynthia Van Ness put together this website to help the researchers of Buffalo History and Genealogy. You could do the same for your community!
B. HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LOCAL HISTORY WEBPAGES BY WRITING HTML CODE:
If you would like to use a text editor to design your own webpages for the
local history links in your community, here is a link to my HTML tutorial:
- Using HTML to
Write Webpages
Finished pages can be ftp'd to your library's webserver for posting online.
C. GENEALOGY IS OFTEN A MOTIVE OR HELP WHEN RESEARCHING LOCAL HISTORY: Here is a link
to my online genealogy tutoral:
-
Librarian's Guide for Helping Patrons with Genealogical Research
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