TAMPA, Fla. — The city of Tampa is turning 136 years old, and city leaders are planning to have birthday celebrations during Archives Awareness Week.
The week spanning from July 9-15 will have exhibits and programs taking place from local archives. The programs are free and open to the public.
A news release from the city explains Archives Awareness Week was first established in 1992.
"During this week, local archivists come together to present their collections through exhibits and programs that convey the value of archives in the identification, preservation and conservation of historic records," the release reads in part.
Archives Awareness Week is held during the second week of July to match up with Tampa’s birthday on July 15.
Here's a breakdown from city leaders of events happening throughout Archives Awareness Week.
- 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 9 at Henry B. Plant Museum
- Premier of the short documentary film Gems from Olivette, which recreates performances of popular songs that took Tampa by storm in the 1890s.
- 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 9 at Oxford Exchange
- Join professor, historian, and Tampa native Sarah McNamara for a conversation of her new book, "Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South"
- 3 p.m. on Monday, July 10 at Old City Hall, Council Chambers
- Join the Tampa Bay History Center’s Curator of Black History, Fred Hearns, and Retired Appellate Judge, District Court of Appeals, E.J. Salcines, to learn more about Tampa’s past.
- 6 p.m. on Monday, July 10 at C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library
- Learn how DNA is inherited, which type of DNA test to take, and exactly what you can expect to get as a result. Recommended for adults.
- 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11 at J.C. Newman Company
- Join company historian Holden Rasmussen in the historic 113-year-old El Reloj cigar factory as he discusses changes in the cigar industry and the ways these changes affected the inhabitants of Ybor City.
- 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11 at Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Public Library
- Presentation on how you can use traditional resources such as vital records, census records, land records and newspapers to uncover the lives, experiences and even personalities of our ancestors.
- 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 12 at Tampa Bay History Center
- Bootleggers, flappers, fruit flies and Art Deco. Join the Tampa Bay History Center’s Brad Massey for a look back in time at Florida in the 1920s to the modern era.
- 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 13 at Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Public Library
- Unveiling of two new Soulwalk historical markers recognizing the historic Jackson House, as well as The Scrub, which was Tampa’s oldest and largest African American neighborhood.
- 11 a.m. on Friday, July 14 at Tampa Bay History Center
- Join local photographer Chip Weiner to take a fascinating look over the last 100 years of Tampa’s development, sites and scenes, and how they look today.
- 2-5 p.m. on Friday, July 14 at C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library
- The Soulwalk History Party welcomes Black Tampanians to share their thrilling days of yesterday. Bring your old photographs and documents to the library for scanning. Have a great story? We will also be recording oral histories.
- 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 14 at The Bricks, Ybor
- Join historian and author Sarah McNamara for an evening of Ybor City’s hidden histories as she tells stories of the radicals and revolutionaries who made Ybor City.
- 10:30 a.m. (walking tour) and 11:30 a.m. (party) on Saturday, July 15 at The Bricks
- Celebrate the 136th birthday of Tampa with a walking tour and birthday party! Join historian and author, Sarah McNamara, through Ybor City as she tells the history of the community’s past and present. The walking tour will end with a birthday celebration.
For more information, people can visit tampa.gov/aaw.