Heritage Village Presents Fourth Speaking of History Lecture

As part of the Speaking of History lecture series, Dara Vance will present an Enlightening Account of Early Tourism: The Travels and Diary of Abbie M. Brooks, Florida’s Silvia Sunshine, on Sunday, April 21. The lecture will be held at 2 p.m. in the Pinellas Room at Heritage Village.

In the years before Henry Flagler and Henry Plant brought their railroad empires to Florida, travel was difficult and frequently a dangerous, life-threatening endeavor. Into this rugged, remote, and sparsely populated peninsula came Abbie Brooks, a woman who traveled throughout Florida, Georgia and Cuba during the 1870s.

Taking the pen name Silvia Sunshine, Brooks recorded her visits, adventures and travels in diaries that offered a unique first-person perspective of Florida during the Reconstruction Era. Far from the Victorian sensibilities and Gilded Age landscapes that started to take shape elsewhere, Brooks witnessed folkways and traditions in the least developed state of the former Confederacy. She kept company with lawmakers, judges, and other civic leaders while crafting an image of the Sunshine State as a land of escape, rehabilitation and opportunity. Years before Hamilton Disston and others ushered the first wave of large-scale real estate development, Silvia Sunshine promoted Florida’s potential.

This presentation, based upon a review and annotation of Brooks’ diary, grew out of Vance’s master’s thesis that documents and contextualizes Brooks’ travels and activities between February 1872 and October 1876.

Vance is a graduate of the Florida Studies Program’s Master of Liberal Arts. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Argosy University. She also completed graduate level course work at the Savannah College of Art and Design. A native Floridian, Vance also taught in the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, her alma mater.

Heritage Village is located at 11909 125^th St. N. in Largo. This living history museum brings more than 150 years of local history to life. Tour 28 authentic buildings and structures, and experience historical Pinellas County through hands-on exploration. Paths wind through 21 acres and connect with the Florida Botanical Gardens and the Florida Gulf Coast Center for Fishing and Interactive Museum.

Heritage Village is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. It is closed all Pinellas County holidays. For more information about Heritage Village visit www.pinellascounty.org/heritage, or call (727) 582-2123.

For more information about Pinellas County services and programs, visit www.pinellascounty.org, now with LiveChat, or create a shortcut to www.pinellascounty.org/mobile on any smartphone. Pinellas County government is on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Pinellas County complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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