A Museum visit without leaving your armchair CRACKEl{ C"IJBA A I-USTC>RY IN ART A full-color, hard-cover book An illustrated, 256 page, soft-cover showcasing 53 works by some of book rhar derails the unique history of Cuba's most influential artists Florida's Cracker culture. berween 1725 and 1959. $19.95 $24.95 A Century of Jewelry Gems & 1785-1885 904.255.0285 THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 1040 MUSEUM BLVD., DAYTONA BEACH, FL 32114 www.moas.org free issue of mdgdzine A t~e for sti II t~ose w~o c~re the issues. ~bout FORUM is "the magazine that regularly produces the best stuff on Florida," the place where those who care about our state's past, present and future find common ground ... and each other. Each FORUM takes a captivating look at a critical issue facing Florida's policy makers, opinion leaders and concerned citizens, from politics to the environment to the arts. Call the Florida Humanities Council for a free issue of FORUM at 813-272-3473 or send your name and address to www.flahum.org. FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL 1725 Yz East Seventh Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 4 Features 8 Epiphany In Tarpon Springs Since 1920, young Greek men in Tarpon Springs have spent one day in January diving for a cross instead of sponges, in celebration of Epiphany and a way of life tied to the sea. By Tina Bucuvalas 14 Miami Book Fair International For eight days in November, thousands flock to the nation's largest celebration of the written word. By Barbara Drake 16 Selling Sunshine: The Art of Citrus Labels Colorful and collectible, citrus crate labels illustrate the history and economic importance of Florida's best known crop. By Joan Vonne 20 Turkish Namesake: New Smyrna Beach Along with its far away-sounding name, New Smyrna Beach is the site of one of the country's oldest settlements. By Michael Zimny Departments 16 3 Editorial 4 News and Field Notes 24 Calendar 26 Books 28 On a Road Less Traveled 29 Marketplace ON THE COVER: Sugar Mill mins, New Symma Beach. Photo by Eric Duseflbery BACK COVER: Goodwood Museum and Gardms, Tallahassee. Photo by Michael Zimny Gmquistadors first discovered the Pensacola area in 1559 and quickly claimed it for Spain. Throughout history; countries have battled to lay :...;,;~. ...- .claim to this beautiful area. You, too can discover the rich heritage and enjoy the land and sea much like it was long ago. Explore historic forts and enjoy the attractions and restaurants at Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Relax on miles of sugar white sand and in the cool emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Shop, dine and play in stylishly revived downtown Pensacola or visit the National Museum of Naval ,~lj~~~~k::; Aviation and IMAX Theatre. it Come see why many fought to ~~~~~~t;Ff-:: stay in this beautiful land. For a free ;::11 visitors guide call ~~~3!~~'\k~~~~ l-800-874-1234 • People visit our beachside community to find something that is becoming harder to find ... a breathtaking Florida retreat where seagulls still outnumber people. And the only castles you find are built in the sand. Nearby, you can find a quiet place to sleep, the freshest seafood in Florida and leisurely shopping. Plus many other ways to enjoy your vacation. Or just a weekend. Which explains why visitors to our unique resort community keep coming back. Put yourself in our place. FLORIDAHERITAGE IN THIS ISSUE ffl - his Fall, we'll explore the cultural heritage of two communities, one on the east coast, the other on the west. In Tarpon Springs the celebration of Epiphany reflects the living heritage of this Greek maritime commu nity. Each January, thousands gather near the chilly waters of the Spring Bayou to cheer on the young men who dive in hopes of claiming the RUSTY ENNEMOSER Epiphany cross, and a blessing of good luck and good fortune. In ew EDITOR Smyrna Beach, the remnants ofthe largest British attempt at colonization in the New World can be seen in the ruins of the Old Fort and the PHILLIP M. POLLOCK overgrown remains of sugar plantations. Many locals today can claim MICHAEL ZIMNY ancestry back to the Greek, Italian and ASSISTANT EDITOR Minorcan colonists brought to New Smyrna in the 1760s to cultivate crops for DEE DEE CELANDER New Smyrna Beach's Scottish founder, DESIGN Dr. Andrew Turnbull. While history and culture are revealed CATHERINE HAAGENSON CLARK in traditional ceremonies and picturesque ADVERTISING MANAGER ruins, they also live on in the documents of the times. Citrus label art is not unique SUSANNE HUNT to Florida, but it does preserve and MARKETING AND reflect the growth and development of CIRCULATION MANAGER our state as well as the character of an important and popular industry. While GEORGE W. PER.CY the crates for which the labels were DIRECTOR designed have been replaced by the DIVISION OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES practical and now recyclable cardboard FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE box, the citrus label has become a trea sured and popular collectible and pre sents us with a colorful reminder of times gone by. FloridaHeritage(lSSN 1071-3417) (USPS 016534) Just as citrus labels document chang is published four times a year by the Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, ing tastes and times, the Miami Book Fair Tarpon Springs R.A. Gray Building, 500 S. Bronough Street, celebrates the great tradition of the art of Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250. TWs magazine is writing. Despite the growth of technology's role in our modern world, each available by subscription for $12.95 per year, or as a benefit of membership in either the November this International event attracts thousands who come to absorb, celebrate Florida Trust for Historic Preservation or and enjoy one of the most fundamental and ancient of arts-the written word. Florida History Associates. Entire contents, With this issue, we extend a special thanks and fond farewell to the founding copyright 1999 by the Division of Historical Resources. All rights reserved. No part of this editor of Florida Heritage, Rusty Ennemoser. For seven years she has skillfully magazine may be reprinted without written guided the development and growth of this award-winning publication. We wish her permission of the Publisher. well as she embarks on a new career. For subscription or advertising information, call Finally, we look to the promise of the new year ahead. We look forward to (850) 487-2344 or 1-800-847-PAST. For more information about programs of the Division of sharing more of the many places and activities of historical and cultural interest Historical Resources, visit our Website at throughout the state. We hope you'll enjoy our plans for expanded coverage-and www.flheritage.com/magazine/ some other pleasant surprises-and wish you a happy and fulfilling new year. The inclusion of advertisements and mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Florida Department of State. This material is available in alternate format upon request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Florida Heritage, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250. Periodicals Postage Paid at Tallahassee, FL. FALL 1999 3 West Palm Beach Major New Exhibit Opens at the Norton Museum ofA rt remarkable exhibit of a remarkable man opens on October 30 at the orton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. "Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks" is the first complete retrospective exhibition of the work of renowned Ameri can artist Gordon Parks. The retrospective brings together for the first time Parks' photographs along with his works as a filmmaker, novelist, poet and composer. The exhibi tion features 219 photographs, combined with his books, music, film and poetry. The result is, in the a1tist's words, a "tone-poem" that impressionistically tells his own story. Parks was born in 1912, the youngest of 15 children. While working as a waiter on the Nonhern Pacific Railroad, he was introduced to photography through the work of social documenta1y photographers working for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Farm Security Administration (FSA). Moved by the poverty of the conditions of the migrant farm workers he saw, he purchased a camera and set out to make photography a weapon against the same poverty and racism he knew. Parks received much of his training as a photojournalist while working for the FSA, and a large part of the exhibit is devoted to the haunting images he produced for the agency. Much of Parks' photography is marked by great contrast in subjects. Working for Life magazine he simultaneously photographed gang wars in Harlem and Parisian fashions. "Suddenly for me," he remembers, "two extremely diverse worlds were about to converge-one of crime, the other of high fashion." Parks continued to work with this diversity of subjects throughout his career, juxtaposing deposed Ponuguese monarchs and poor children in 1950 and cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro against its slums in 1961. Some of Parks' most intriguing photographs included in the exhibit involve his manipula tion of color using multiple exposures, collages and painting on pictures. In this process he has evolved a lyrical style that fluctuates between realism and abstraction. His most recent work featured in the exhibit are abstract landscapes, photographed in the studio using combinations of shells, flowers, paintings and complex light ing. In addition to photography, Parks, also widely known as the director of the popular 1971 film, Shaft, is the author of several books about his life, a poet and a musician, composing a symphony, sonatas, concenos and a ballet. "Half Past Autumn" continues at the Norton Museum of Art through January 2, 2000. For more information call (561) 832-5196.-M.Z. 4 FLORIDA HERITAGE "Save America's Treasures" comes oF lorida THREE HISTORIC SITES IN FLORIDA ARE AMONG THE 62 NATIONWIDE TO receive grants from the U. S. Department of the Interior that are designed to "Save America's Treasures." The three grants totaling nearly $1.4 million will go to Ca d'Zan, the Ringling mansion in Sarasota; Fort Jefferson in Monroe County; and Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Indian River County. Ca d'Zan is the 1924-6 Mediterranean Revival style winter home of circus magnate John Ringling. Its grant of $353,147 will be used to conserve the fine art and decorative surface finishes of interior rooms. Fort Jefferson, the nation's largest 19th century seacoast fort, will use its $970,400 grant to stabilize walls, embrasures and parade walls. Pelican Island was America's first 0 national wildlife refuge, established in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt. It received $57,711 to stabilize the shoreline and to plant native trees and grasses. Fort Jefferson The grants are one component of the Save America's Treasures program, a public-private effort of the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The initiative is led by Honorary Chair Hillary Rodham Clinton and is co-chaired by National Trust President Richard Moe and Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.-R.E. MIAMI In June, the Miami Museum of Science announced its affiliation with the Smithsonian Mian1i Institution. Only the sixth of 24 national facilities to complete the partnership process with the venerable Washington institution, the program gives the museum access to Museun1of Smithsonian's collection of some 150 million pieces, the exchange of exhibits and programs, and the exploration of new ways to educate and enlighten the public. One of the first benefits of this partnership will be a major new exhibit, Smithsonian Science Expeditions: Exploring Latin America. Scheduled to open on October 30 to coincide with the museum's 50th anniversary, the exhibit will be built around some 100 rare pre Joins with the Columbian artifacts, most on long-term loan from the Smithsonian's collection. Visitors to the exhibit will be invited to join an expedition tracing the steps of scientists throughout the decades as they forged relationships in Latin America and formed America's foremost collections of natural history artifacts from the region. More ambitious are the Miami Museum of Science's long-term plans which, with the Smithsonian's backing, call for the creation of a $200 million Science Center of the Americas. The nation's first international science center, this world-class facility would explore South Florida's unique linkages with the people and environments of Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America using dynamic, multilingual exhibit presen tations which would range from dinosaurs and pre-Columbian artifacts to large screen films and cutting-edge technology. The Center is envisioned as much as an academic and research center as it would be a tourist attraction, says museum president and chief executive officer Russell Etling. "The Smithsonian would love to see the Center become the forum for discussion of their new discoveries in Latin America," he said.-M.Z. FALL 1999 news & field notes "TREASURES TO GO" hen the Smithsonian's National Museum ofA merican Art learned it would have to close its doors for three years while the building underwent massive renovation, the decision was made to put as much of the collection as possible on tour. The resulting effort is an ambitious tour of American art treasures - over 500 pieces grouped in eight thematic exhibitions of paint ings and sculptures that will make stops at more than 70 museums across the country from early 2000 through 2002. The good news for Floridians is that seven of the eight shows of "Treasures to Go" will be coming to the Sunshine State. The first to open will be American Mod ernism andA bstraction onJanuary7, 2000in TOP: Willem de Kooning Miami at The Art Museum at Florida International University. American The Wave, 1 942-44 Oil on fiberboard Modernism and Abstraction showcases the radical transformations character izing the 20th century, from the emerging technological innovations to new BOTTOM LEFT: lsamu Noguchi Grey Sun, 1967 political theories. Among the featured artists will be works by: Joseph Stella, Arni marble Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber, Jan BOTTOM RIGHT: Robert Rauschenberg Matulka, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Reservoir, 1 9 61 Mixed media on canvas Willem deKooning, Clyfford Still, Nathan Oliviera, Kenneth Noland, Jen nifer Bartlett and David Hackney. In addition, as part of its Critic's Lecture Series, The Art Museum at FlU will host Betsy Broun, Director, Na tional Museum of American Art on January 7 and on February 18, Barbara Haskell, Curator of the Whitney Mu seum of American Art. The show will close March 26, 2000. For more infor mation about the exhibit or lectures, call (305) 348-2890. -H.S.H. 6 FLORIDA HERITAGE CHIEF'S HOUSE GETS AR OOF A crew of craftsmen that included Native Americans and South African Zulus skilled in the art of thatching recently applied their talents to the immense reconstruction of the chiefs house on the site of Mission San Luis de Apalachee in Tallahassee. Thatching the cone-shaped structure, which measures 70 feet in diameter and rises 43 feet at the center, required 36,000 palm fronds. The even larger council house will re quire more than 56,000 fronds to cover its 54-foot-high frame. At over 120 feet in diameter, the council house will be the largest thatched structure known in the United States. Design and reconstruction of the Apalachee structures at Mission San Luis is based on years of archaeological research and historical evidence. Both the chiefs house and the council house are being reconstructed precisely where the remains of the structures were uncovered on the San Luis site.-H.S.H. A NOT ]UST RESTORING GRAND HOTEL, People throughout Florida will ring in RE-CREATING AN ERA OF GRANDEUR. the 21st century at First Night cel ebrations, which are family oriented, non-alcoholic, and focus on the arts. Delray Beach, St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, Fort Walton Beach, Miami Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Dunedin will all host First Night 2000 events. First Night began in Boston in 1976 to bring the city together in celebration. Since 1980, this concept has inspired over 200 communities to start their own First Night celebrations. The mis Established 1888, Premiering 1999 sion of First Night is to broaden the Tie October reopening of center, restaurant, lounge public's appreciation of the visual the Casa Monica Hotel and business center. and performing arts through an inno grants entrance to an age Romantic ambiance fills of opulent elegance. As the 137 guest rooms and tower vative, ethnically diverse, and high oldest hotel in America's suites, as well as 5,000+ quality New Year's Eve that provides oldest city, the Casa Monica square feet of distinctive blends old-world charm meeting sface. The Casa a shared cultural experience. Con with the finest modern ~a~nica Monica wi ] lend enduring tact the local arts agency or chamber amenities, including a grandeur to your next HOTEL second-story pool, fitness vacation or special event. of commerce in the cities mentioned In the heart o/ historic St. Augustine, Flon·da above for more information. Dust off Reservations 1-888-GRAND-123 .& Group Sales 1-800-648-1888 .& Fax 904-827-0426 your party hat and noise-makers and wwwcasamon1ca.com join the fun! -K.E. FALL 1999 7 reek men, primarily from the Dodecanese Islands, have been diving for sponges in the waters near Tarpon Springs since 1 905. The men were recruited to con tinue this traditional occupation when it was discovered that Florida's waters pro vided the only U.S. habitat for natural sponges. Those who did not dive staffed or maintained the boats, sold the sponges, or practiced other related maritime occupations. The divers gradu ally brought their families and their religious beliefs to Florida where they flourished. Today, the sponge industry endures and Tarpon Springs preserves its strong Greek character and maritime heritage. 9