Love St. Augustine history? This is for you!

If you like Florida history, you’re going to love this likely late 19th century or early 20th century photo album from St. Augustine. Here are many scenes taken near the turn of the century in and around America’s oldest city. There are shots of various vessels making a port call, including the steamboat Planter from Charleston, South Carolina, and the USS Ericsson, the second torpedo boat in the U.S. Navy.

The steamboat Planter may be the same vessel that was piloted by slave Robert Smalls through Confederate defenses in 1862 and surrendered to the Union Navy. It later served as a Union gunboat. However, that boat was beached in 1876, so if this is a photo of it in St. Augustine, it may be from the 1870s.

The USS Ericsson was based in Newport, Rhode Island, but was sent to Key West in 1897 to join U.S. forces in blockading Cuba in the months leading up to the Spanish American War. During the war, the vessel participated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba and figured in the rescue of more than 100 Spanish sailors from the doomed crusier Vizcaya. The photograph may been taken on the Ericsson’s trip south or on its return in 1898.

In 1895, a wooden bridge was built across Matanzas Bay from St. Augustine to Anastasia Island (South Beach). It was renovated in 1904 to allow for a trolley. One photograph shows the gate to the toll bridge and seems to indicate a train was available. Another photo shows a two-team horse-drawn omnibus that connected with the South Beach train.

Click on any photograph to enlarge it. To purchase this book, please call (727) 822-3278.

17th century print of Fort Caroline

THIS JUST IN: The French established their first colony in what is now the United States at Fort Caroline in 1564. It was on the banks of the St. Johns River near what is now Jacksonville. This is a 1671 print showing Fort Caroline, depicting it as quite a busy place. Almost a year and a half after the French set up shop, the Spanish arrived and established St. Augustine. Almost immediately, the Spanish attacked Fort Caroline, routed the French, and destroyed Fort Caroline. Today nobody knows exactly where Fort Caroline was located but that didn't stop the National Park Service from establishing a memorial near where it might have been. This print is newly arrived and part of our extensive collection of prints and maps, particularly pertaining to Florida. If you love maps and prints, come see us.

Rufus K. Sewell and the Minorcans

The offending page. Click photo to enlarge.

In 1848, travel writer Rufus King Sewell turned his sights on the city of St. Augustine, writing a book of the sort that was proving popular as Florida was becoming known as a health retreat, a place where the chronically ill could find some respite. It is titled Sketches of St. Augustine with a view of its History and Advantages as a Resort for Invalids.

The book, a copy of which is in the collection of rare and unusual books at Lighthouse Books, ABAA, contains the usual chapters on history, geography, climate and so forth.

Sewell also shares the story of Dr. Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish physician who tried to establish the agricultural colony of New Smyrna in 1768, using 1,500 Minorcan settlers he had recruited from the Mediterranean. Turnbull mistreated the settlers and they rebelled, eventually ending up in St. Augustine, then the seat of British government in the region.

With an apparent degree of skepticism, Sewell's account of the beleaguered Minorcans, and their arrival in St. Augustine, is followed by his opinions about the industriousness -- or, lack -- of the Minorcan descendants still resident in the city.

As might be expected, Sewell’s criticism of Minorcans brought consternation to his publisher, but apparently not before the book was in print. In most copies, the offending passages (on pages 39 and 40) have been neatly excised. Rare copies, including the one at Lighthouse, contain those pages.