Key West in History [Paperback]

This photo-rich guide to things to see in Key West takes you through the nearly 200-year history of this unique town, era by era. Pirates, wreckers, Civil War sailors, Cuban rebels, presidents, writers and artists all left their mark on town, in homes and workplaces, museums and monuments.

Key West is a unique travel destination whose history is so rich, it can be confusing for first-time visitors. Tourists walk through a mix of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-firstcentury historic homes and attractions in a blur of fascinating impressions. They get no clear picture of the evolution of the city from its beginnings to the present and no sense of how all of the sites fit into history nor of the significance of Key West in American social, military, and intellectual history. Key West in History changes all of that. More than a typical, site-by-site guidebook, this book presents over 50 Key West sites in historical context—an invaluable resource for the visitor or student who wants a deeper understanding of how the city represents different eras of American and Floridian history, and how specific sites reflect important periods and trends in the past. Each chapter describes the events of a period of Key West history, and is accompanied by photographs of selected sites that represent that period.