The Everglades: Exploitation & Conservation
February 22, 2002 to August 18, 2002

The Everglades: Exploitation & Conservation explores one of the world’s most unique endangered habitats.

This exhibition traces the history of the issues facing the Everglades today: drainage and water management; parks and wildlife refuges; the Everglades Restoration Act; agriculture, exotic plants and animals; and development plans that failed or succeeded.

Through artifacts, photographs, maps and manuscripts, this exhibition tells the story of the Everglades, from the arrival of the Seminole Indians in the 1800s to the preservation and conservation efforts of today. Photographs illustrate a change in public attitude toward the Everglades.

Among the artifacts on display is a first edition print of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ The Everglades, River of Grass, which became the most famous book ever written about the area. Also making an appearance in the exhibit is an airboat that was used for hunting in the Everglades. Video footage, courtesy of the Wolfson Media History Center, shows the opening ceremony of Everglades National Park in 1947.

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Organized by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

Photo: Everglades “Pushing through the Everglades”drawn by Harry Fenn from sketches by Wolf Harlander, Harper's Weekly, March 12, 1887. HMSF, 1989-238-1.