Greetings Everyone:

The PK Younge Library has a fascinating on-line exhibition entitled, "A Tour of Central Florida and the Lower West Coast." Its inspiration and centerpiece is the diary of George Franklin Thompson (1865 to 1866).

The PK Younge Library introduces the web presentation this way:

"Thompson was appointed to this tour of duty as an Inspector for the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, the federal agency charged with the task of overseeing Reconstruction in a non-slave South. In a lively style and a clear hand, he records his impressions of Gainesville, Paynes Prairie, Ocala, Silver Springs, Tampa, the Manatee River, Charlotte Harbor, Fort Myers, and Key West..."

The website also includes articles from The Tallahassee Sentinel, a map and his journal.

Enjoy PK Younge Library's presentation of Thompson's chronicle of the early years of Florida's Reconstruction era.

K Wyer Lane