The St. Petersburg Museum of History (SPMOH) is a

history museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

located in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, dedicated to covering the area's history. , the museum's director is Rui Farias. The museum was founded by Mary Wheeler Eaton in 1920 as the St. Petersburg Memorial Historical Society. The city of St. Petersburg granted the organization the site after the

1921 Tampa Bay hurricane The Tampa Bay hurricane of 1921 (also known as the 1921 Tarpon Springs hurricane) was the most recent hurricane to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area and held the record as the major storm that stuck the continental United States latest in the c ...

destroyed the aquarium standing on the land. It is the oldest museum in

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg– Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical ...

. The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, and communicate the history and heritage of Florida with an emphasis on St. Petersburg and the Pinellas peninsula. The museum hosts a variety of traveling exhibits, evening events, guest speakers, and more. The St. Petersburg Museum of History has a significant archive that includes over 5,000 indexed city photographs, 32,000 artifacts, and other historic photos and documents. TaftPajamas

Notable holdings include a plus-sized pair of

pajama Pajamas ( US) or pyjamas (Commonwealth) (), sometimes colloquially shortened to PJs, jammies, jam-jams, or in South Asia night suits, are several related types of clothing worn as nightwear or while lounging or performing remote work from hom ...

s owned by

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

; a full-sized replica of the Benoist XIV aircraft; reading glasses owned by

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

; and the largest collection of signed baseballs in the world (called "Little Cooperstown"). Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the museum was closed from March 2020 through July 8, 2020. The pandemic also derailed plans for actor

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

to sign the 5,000th baseball in the museum's collection. The museum is set to expand; artis
Ya La’ford
is creating an aluminum sculpture called ''Intersections'' to wrap around the new building expansion.

References

External links

St. Petersburg Museum of History website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Petersburg Museum of History 1920 establishments in Florida History museums in Florida Museums established in 1920 Museums in St. Petersburg, Florida History of St. Petersburg, Florida