South Florida Museum

Bradenton, Florida: Three attractions in one, the South Florida Museum is a working history museum, aquarium and planetarium. The two story museum is home to historical collections from early Manatee county as well as the Parker Manatee Aquarium and the Bishop Planetarium.

Founded in the 1946, the South Florida Museum was originally located on the Memorial Pier in Bradenton. The museum continued to grow and was later relocated to its current location in 1966. Upon the relocation, the Bishop Planetarium was added. The museum grew again in 1980 with the addition of the Spanish Plaza. Then in 1993 a 60,000 gallon tank was added for Snooty the Manatee and the Parker Manatee Aquarium opened.

In 1998, the museum suffered a fire destroyed the planetarium as well as the administrative offices of the museum as well as causing severe damage to a newly renovated education wing. The areas were rebuilt and reopened fully by 2005.

The museum takes visitor’s on a journey through the history of the region. From the early Native American through today, the museum captures life through artifacts, diorama’s and re-creations. There are fossils, antique tools and equipment and excavated artifacts on display the galleries. There are even re-creations of Spanish homes, chapels, a boat building shop and more.

One of the highlights of the museum is the Tallant Gallery. The personal collection of archeologist Montague Tallant contains over 5,000 artifacts ranging from pottery to jewelry. Portions of the collection became part of the museum’s collection in 1946 with the remainder of the collection being on display with the Smithsonian Institute. The highlight of the display is Anthropomorphic Effigy Pendant.

The Parker Manatee Aquarium is a 60,000 gallon aquarium that is home to Snooty the Manatee. The aquarium is large enough to hold three adult manatees and the staff works in conjunction with Lowry Park Zoo’s manatee rehabilitation program. The mascot and main resident of the aquarium is Snooty. Snooty was born in 1948 in Miami and was permanently moved to Bradenton in 1949. By 1979, the Manatee County commissioners declared Snooty as the official mascot of the county. Snooty celebrated his 60th birthday in 2008 and is the longest living manatee in captivity. He has aided in the research of manatee behavior as well as been featured on the television show Captain Kangaroo in 1982. In addition to viewing the aquarium from above and below the water, guests can watch a presentation and feeding at select times during the day or log onto the website and watch Snooty via the Snooty Cam.

The final attraction at the museum is the Bishop Planetarium. The full function planetarium features a domed theater and all of the state of the art equipment to make the skies come alive. In addition to the star talks, the planetarium is able to play HD films that take you into the heavens. They feature several different shows each day with special edition shows for the holidays and on select evenings.

Between the three venues that make up the South Florida Museum, one can learn about the region from the land, to the water and into the sky. Like their motto says, they centrality have “Something for Everyone.”

For more photos from the museum, visit my South Florida Museum photo gallery.