Topic: Promoting Paradise Images of Florida Tourism History

Speaker: Rick Kilby

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2024

Doors open: 9:45 A.M.

Program Time: 10:00 – 11:30 A.M.

Location: Azaela Lodge, Mead Botanical Garden, 1300 S. Denning Drive Winter Park, FL

Cost: Free – Join us for refreshments and conversation

Author Rick Kilby will share how the perception of the Sunshine State transformed from being steeped in Southern tradition into a global destination for those seeking warm weather, salubrious waters, and ubiquitous pink flamingoes. Beginning with early stereograph images and exotic engravings of untamed wilderness, Florida’s brand evolved into a family-friendly destination, long before the Mouse arrived. Learn about attractions such as Silver Springs that spanned the era of steamboats and glass bottom boats. Told through an array of colorful imagery, this presentation will ooze with fresh-squeezed Floridiana.

Orlando-based writer and graphic designer Rick Kilby is the author of Florida’s Healing Waters: Gilded Age Mineral Springs, Seaside Resorts, and Health Spas (University Press of Florida, 2020), which received the silver medal for Florida nonfiction from the Florida Book Awards and the Florida Historical Society’s Stetson Kennedy Award. His first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth: Ponce de León and Florida’s Magical Waters (University Press of Florida, 2013), won a Florida Book Award in the Visual Arts category.

The presentation is free of charge and coffee and light refreshments are served. There is a Q & A time following the presentation and Kirsch will be on hand to sign copies of this special book.