Museum of the Everglades

Join us at the Museum of the Everglades every month for our Third Thursday lecture series. Presented by museum staff or local authority, these lectures will explore the lesser known and often-overlooked areas of our region's past. Every lecture is free, begins at 2 pm and will include an opportunity for questions and discussion.

The building that is currently the home of Museum of the Everglades began its life as a commercial laundry and dry cleaner. Barron Collier was determined to provide all modern conveniences for the people living and working in what was then the company town of Everglades. The laundry not only washed the swamp mud soiled clothing of the men working on construction of the Tamiami Trail, it handled cleaning the staff uniforms and bed linens for three Collier hotels from…

November is Native American History Month. While the visit of the Key Marco Cat artifact on loan from the Smithsonian has been grabbing all the headlines, many people don’t realize the Calusa weren’t just on Marco Island. Their culture dominated South Florida for over a thousand years. The Calusa’s proximity and connection to the sea had a profound influence on what food they ate and how they made everything from tools and weapons to cooking utensils. Come with us to…

Deaconess Harriet Bedell, an Episcopalian missionary, who had lived and worked with the Cheyenne in Oklahoma and the Gwich'in of Alaska, came to the Everglades in 1932 in hopes of converting the Seminole Tribe. She established the Glades Cross Mission and helped to develop a commercial market for local native handicrafts and clothing, encouraging the Seminole and Miccosukee to focus on traditional designs and styles rather than those of western tribes the public had come to expect from cowboy films.…