In 1948, Earl Tupper introduced a new brand of airtight containers called Tupperware that allowed for food to be preserved and stored for longer periods of time.

No one really cared.

The revolutionary plastic containers with the patented “burping” seal sat on store shelves, and the company based in Leominster, Massachusetts saw little growth.

A woman named Brownie Wise came up with a marketing strategy that involved hosting home parties to demonstrate the many uses of Tupperware in a fun setting. She would train other women to host parties themselves, providing them an opportunity to earn money based on their sales.

Tupperware sales exploded around the country and in 1951, Wise was named vice president of marketing for the company. She spearheaded the effort... click title or here for the full article

In the 1960s, Dr. Robert B. Hayling was a leader of the Civil Rights movement in Florida. His former dentist’s office in St. Augustine is now a museum. Dr. Hayling died on December 20, 2015, at the age of 86.

One of Hayling’s last public appearances was at the Florida Historical Society Annual Meeting and Symposium on May 23, 2015, where he discussed his life.

Hayling grew up in Tallahassee, the son of a professor at Florida A&M University. At an early age Hayling became aware of racial inequities in America.

“To tease my grandmother a bit, I would ask her, ‘Grandmama, if black and white people can’t get along here on earth, how they gonna get along in heaven?’ And my grandmother would scream out ‘Cleo, come get this boy! God is gonna strike him dead!’ I’m still... click title or here for the full article

If sea levels were to rise to the point where the coastline of Florida was submerged, our peninsular state would become a series of islands. At the heart of one of those islands, a neo-Gothic tower of coquina and marble would rise 205 feet into the sky.

Bok Tower Gardens near Lake Wales is on one of the highest points in the state, 298 feet above sea level.

President Calvin Coolidge presided over the dedication of the Singing Tower and its adjacent bird sanctuary and gardens on February 1, 1929. The facility was conceived and built by Edward Bok as a gift to the American people for the opportunities he had been given.

Bok was born in 1863 in Dans Helder, Netherlands. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1870. He grew from a boy who didn’t speak Engl... click title or here for the full article

The Historic Rossetter House Museum and Gardens in Eau Gallie is presenting a free program of Christmas music and stories, Saturday, December 5, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The Dickens Carolers, dressed in Victorian Era costumes, will perform.

Christmas celebrations at the Rossetter House date back to the early twentieth century.

The last resident of the Rossetter House was Caroline P. Rossetter. In 1921, at the age of 23, she took over her father’s Standard Oil Agency, becoming a successful business leader just months after women received the right to vote in this country. She was the first female Standard Oil Agent, and the longest running, operating the business for 62 years.

During an interview conducted in 1980, Rossetter remembered her family hosting Catholic ser... click title or here for the full article

This Friday night, a woman who was ritualistically buried in Brevard County more than 7,000 years ago will be brought back to life.

Using some of the same forensic reconstruction techniques used to identify modern crime victims from skeletal remains, artist Brian Owens has created the Windover Woman sculpture that will be unveiled this weekend.

“This was a fun project,” says Owens. “I usually work in bronze, so this more lifelike silicone material was a new challenge for me.”

Owens had measurements and computer generated images created from scans of a Windover skull to guide his work. The resulting bust sculpture will allow visitors to look into the eyes of a prehistoric Floridian.

In the mid-1980s, nearly 200 remarkably well-preserved human burials together... click title or here for the full article

The LaGrange community was established in the mid-1800s, between what would become Titusville and Mims. The LaGrange Church, organized in 1869, is the oldest Protestant church on the east coast of Florida, from New Smyrna to Key West.

The original church was built in what is now the northern section of LaGrange Cemetery. A two story log church was built in 1872, at the church’s current location southwest of the cemetery.

The quaint, Wooden Gothic style LaGrange Community Church standing today was built in 1893, with boards surrounding the first floor of the log church. A pointed steeple and stained glass windows were added.

In addition to being a church, the building was a public meeting space, and the first public school in Brevard County.

Walking through th... click title or here for the full article

The Windover Dig in Titusville, Florida was one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the world.

Nearly 200 ritualistically buried bodies were discovered, wrapped in the oldest woven cloth found in North America. The amazingly well-preserved remains were determined to be between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

The initial discovery of ancient human remains occurred in 1982, during construction of the Windover Farms housing development near the intersection of I-95 and State Road 50. Three archaeological digs were conducted between 1984 and 1986, and the fascinating results of those excavations attracted international attention.

The only comprehensive e... click title or here for the full article

Peggy Bulger wanted to follow in Stetson Kennedy’s footsteps. In fact, Bulger wrote her doctoral dissertation about him.

As head of the Florida Writer’s Project for the Works Project Administration in the 1930s and ‘40s, Kennedy traveled throughout the state documenting the traditions, folktales, and folk songs of Florida’s diverse population. He recorded the oral histories of Greek sponge divers in Tarpon Springs, Latino cigar rollers in Ybor City and Key West, Seminole Indians at Big Cypress, and many others.

Bulger came to Florida in 1976, at the age of 25, to become the first Folklife Coordinator for the State of Florida under the Department of State Division of Historical Resources.

“I started really delving into materials that were done during the WPA,” says B... click title or here for the full article

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States.

By the time Jamestown was established and the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the people who originally founded St. Augustine were having grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the city of St. Augustine on September 8, 1565.

Menéndez was personally motivated to come to Florida in search of his son Juan, whose ship was lost off the coast here. The Spanish Crown was anxious for Menéndez to reclaim La Florida from the French Huguenots, who had established a settlement called Fort Caroline near present day Jacksonville.

It was almost an accident that the Spanish found out about Fort Caroline.

“It really was the hung... click title or here for the full article

The Labor Day Hurricane that struck the Florida Keys on September 2, 1935 is the most powerful storm to ever hit the United States. With wind gusts estimated up to 225 miles per hour and a storm surge bringing waves as high as 20 feet ashore; the hurricane was devastating.

Nearly half of the 1,000 people who were on the Florida Keys when the hurricane arrived were killed. Among the dead were about half of the 300 World War I veterans working on road construction projects there for the federal government.

“In 1935, this is the height of the Great Depression, so a number of Americans were out of work,” says Ben DiBiase, archivist at the Library of Florida History. “FDR and the federal government were trying to get a lo... click title or here for the full article

The slave ship Guerrero was lost off the coast of south Florida on December 19, 1827, with 561 Africans aboard.

Underwater archaeologists believe that the ship has been found.

The Diving with a Purpose Underwater Archaeology Program began in conjunction with the National Park Service and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers, to have African Americans participate in the search for the slave ship Guerrero.

That effort was filmed for the PBS documentary series “Changing Seas” in the episode “Sunken Stories.” The program is produced by WPBT2 in Miami, and can be viewed on their web site at changingseas.tv.

“One of the main stars of the documentary was the late... click title or here for the full article