Tampa Bay History Center author - Billy Somerville

About Billy Somerville

Director of Marketing and Communications

The Tampa Bay History Center welcomed Billy Somerville as its Director of Marketing and Communications in 2021. Billy leads the History Center’s external communication and content strategy across media channels with over a decade of experience in the Tampa Bay area.

For all media inquiries, please call, email, or text Billy to reach a History Center historian.

Articles by Billy Somerville

Press Release

Kitschy Cartography: Illustrated and Pictorial Maps of Florida

In Kitschy Cartography, visitors will see views of Florida and its cities through the eyes of artists who populate their maps with colorful characters that symbolize the history, industries, and people of the state.

May 17, 2022

Press Release

Cuban Pathways: The Exhibition

Taíno Indians, enslaved Africans, Chinese laborers and pastel-wearing U.S. tourists all traveled to and from Cuba over the last 500 years. Their experiences and labors made the largest island in the Caribbean a hub of the modern Atlantic World. Cuban Pathways tells the stories of these individuals and more, whose toil, vacations and political crusades shaped the island’s modern history.

Jan 27, 2022

Press Release

Tampa Bay History Center toasts Bay area beer scene

(TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 14, 2019) — Almost as soon as the cigar smoke started rising from the factories of Tampa’s Ybor City, the beer started flowing. In 1897, the aroma of Cuban tobacco emanating from the city’s cigar factories mingled with the scent of imported hops fermenting at the Florida Brewery – the state’s first.

Feb 14, 2019