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Chart your course to adventure.
A look inside "The Pirate's Fate," an immersive experience you'll find only in the History Center's Treasure Seekers gallery.
Discover new horizons.
Garrison Channel
Navigate our map collection.
Tampa Bay History Center, Touchton Map Library, 1889, Map of North America Showing Direct Passenger Transportation Lines between the United States, Mexico, The West Indies, Central and South America, also Illustrating the Geographical position of Florida and Location of the Railroad, Steamboat and Steamship Lines of the Plant System for Commerce with other States and the Countries South and East of the Gulf of Mexico
Join our krewe.
Tampa Bay History Center
Florida Front and Center
Photochrome Map of Fort Marion, St Augustine, Florida, Touchton Map Library Collection

What’s happening at the museum right now.

City of Tampa's 138th Birthday
Blog

Tampa Bay History Center Highlights Archives Awareness Week 2025

Each July, the City of Tampa celebrates Archives Awareness Week with programs that emphasize the importance of preserving local history. As the city marks its 138th birthday, the Tampa Bay 

History you
can touch.

Illustration of hands holding the globe.

Treasure Seekers

There’s more than meets the aye at this exhibit on conquistadors, pirates and shipwrecks. All aboard -- or walk the plank.
Illustration of a magnifying glass.

A Place of Your Own

Experience Tampa’s port industries from inside an actual cargo container. Test your knowledge of Florida’s natural resources. Play with regional history in a whole new way.
Sextant in Treasure Seekers Gallery at the Tampa Bay History Center
Students explore the galleries of the Tampa Bay History Center

Dig through
our archives.

illustration of a treasure map.

Touchton Map Library

Navigate more than 8,000 maps, charts and logs from the early exploration of Europe and North America.
Illustration of a stack of books.

Witt Research Center

View nearly 10,000 books, manuals, maps, documents, microfilm, and family/subject papers spanning prehistoric to present-day Florida.
Tony Jannus and the Benoist Airboat, Opening St. Petersburg-Tampa AirBoat Line, January 1, 1914
Collections archive storage at the Tampa Bay History Center
Blackened Grouper Sandwich at Columbia Cafe
Cafe

Modern flavor.
Historic taste.

Resting on the Tampa Riverwalk inside the Tampa Bay History Center, this charming cafe captures the flavor of the original Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. We offer a sampling of the Spanish- and Cuban-inspired dishes that made the 118-year-old restaurant famous.