On our way south to Sarasota, we passed through Tampa and stopped at the Tampa Bay History Center. It’s where you’ll find the Touchton Map Library and thousands of maps, charts and documents more than 500 years old. The maps include European exploration of North America before the U.S. existed. The master of the maps (I gave him this title) is Rodney Kite-Powell. His real title is the Director of the Touchton Map Library and he spent some time with us talking the history of Sarasota and then took us to the room where they store all the maps. As he pulled open the drawers, revealing maps, I was in awe. There’s something about seeing pieces of history with the bare eye, not under a display glass and without a barrier. We had the chance to check out several Florida maps from a variety of time periods including one where Sarasota was spelled with a “z”. There’s a couple different stories of where Sarasota got it’s name, but all we could confirm is that at one time it had the letter “z” in it. For more on the history of Sarasota, watch the video below:
For more on the Touchton Map Library, visit the Tampa Bay History Center’s website here.