Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Jamin Wells
(University of West Florida)
John Jensen (University of West Florida)
Send message to Convenors
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Sala 1.11
- Start time:
- 14 July, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Panel explores Pensacola, Florida's 450-year history as a succession of physical, social, and cultural frontiers for native, European, and American communities struggling to exploit the land, sea, airspace, and peoples of the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Long Abstract:
For the past 450 years, Pensacola, Florida, has served as a physical, social, and cultural frontier for successive waves of native, European, and American communities seeking to exploit the northern Gulf of Mexico. The region's natural environment and strategic location made it a vital pawn for imperial powers during the first two hundred years of colonization and settlement. While nineteenth-century political and economic changes radically remade Pensacola's cultural landscape, the burgeoning port remained a frontier on the edge of an expanding nation. Civil War turned Pensacola into a military frontier, as northern forces held the port's key coastal fortification in the heart of the Confederacy. Pensacola became a different type of military in the twentieth-century as the "birthplace" of modern American naval aviation. More recently, innovative work in community education and engagement in coastal heritage has remade Pensacola into a frontier for emerging trends in historic preservation, public history and archaeology, and community outreach.
This panel brings together scholars working in multiple disciplines—archaeology, history, and historic preservation—to explore the evolving frontier character of one specific region over the course of 450 years. Papers examine visible and invisible frontiers through case studies that address Pensacola communities and environments from local, regional, national, and global perspectives.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This paper presents new archaeological findings related to Spain's 1559 expedition to Pensacola, Florida.
Paper long abstract:
Pensacola, Florida was the scene of an early attempt by Spain to establish a colony in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Led by Don Tristán de Luna and comprised of eleven ships and 1,500 people, the expedition was devastated by a hurricane shortly after arriving in Pensacola Bay, yet the colonists remained for two years in an attempt to settle the area. Historical and archaeological research has led to the discovery of three vessels from the fleet, as well as the historical settlement site on the nearby shore. This paper presents an overview of the expedition and examines the multiple wreck sites from the fleet.
Paper short abstract:
This paper is an initial examination of Pensacola’s maritime community and industry as it evolved in the last half of the 19th century.
Paper long abstract:
By the mid-19th century, Pensacola transformed from being primarily a military outpost on the edge of the United States to a viable port. Lumber, bricks and other natural resources encouraged shipping and Pensacola's waterfront transformed from a few, isolated wharves to a thriving center of commerce. Despite this growth, Pensacola did not develop into a traditional port with a stable shipbuilding industry and sailing community. Rather, it remained 'a frontier' port that catered to sailors and ships en route to other, final, destinations. Increased numbers of men, and women, worked and lived along the water during this time, and combined they created a prosperous maritime port. Yet, Pensacola remained on the fringes of the United States and failed to support a stable seafaring population. This paper is an initial examination of Pensacola's maritime community and industry as it evolved in the last half of the 19th century.
Paper short abstract:
Case study exploring the social, technological, and environmental history of a barrier island road in the context of coastal change.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the surprisingly complex social, technological, and environmental history of a narrow seven-mile road on a shifting barrier island. Seasonal human habitation of Santa Rosa Island began thousands of years ago, and, despite a handful of ill-fated and short-lived efforts to construct permanent structures, the island remained a distant coastal frontier to the nearby city of Pensacola, Florida through the early nineteenth century. Local boosters, ignoring prescient warnings by coastal stakeholders, spearheaded the construction of a narrow road on the island to a new state park in 1949. Over the ensuing decades, the road became a lightning rod for conflict between local, state, and federal stakeholders as storm- and climate-induced coastal changes, social movements, and technological innovations made and remade Fort Pickens Road, offering a vivid case study of the compromises, adaptations, and innovations wrought by coastal change.
Paper short abstract:
Identification and preservation of our collective coastal heritage is one of the most pressing challenges facing preservationists in the twentieth-first century. This paper details a preliminary effort to train the next generation of historic preservationists at the University of West Florida.
Paper long abstract:
Identification and preservation of our collective coastal heritage is one of the most pressing challenges facing preservationists in the twentieth-first century. This paper details a preliminary effort to train the next generation of historic preservationists. It shares the objectives, collaborations, challenges, and outcomes of an innovative, team-taught graduate course in coastal and maritime historic preservation taught at the University of West Florida in spring 2017. Through collaborative partnerships with community and cultural organizations, students created a model coastal heritage inventory of Pensacola, Florida, and a mechanism for disseminating information to the public. The paper concludes by suggesting a model for a collaborative, transdisciplinary, publicly engaged training program for coastal preservation.