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St. Pete Museum of History chronicles memories of city through postcards

By FOX 13 News Staff
Published  August 15, 2024 1:12pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

History museum shares story of St. Pete

FOX 13 photojournalist Barry Wong takes us inside the St. Petersburg Museum of History, where an extensive archive helps to preserve and share the city’s legacy.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The St. Peterburg Museum of History archive library features 40,000 pieces that help chronicle the history of the city. 

A popular donation can fit right in your mailbox.

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"The item donated the most is postcards because people will just send them in the mail," said Jessy Breckenridge. "It's easy to put a postcard in an envelope and say, 'hey I found this in my mother's things, do you want it?'" 

The Archives and Collections Manager estimates that the museum has 15,000-20,000 postcards.

"The fun thing about postcards is they're in color," Breckenridge said. "Some of these are from the 1910s and the 1920s, and these were taken black and white photos that somebody went in by hand and colored, but something about seeing an image of something in color is so, it's so alive."

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Many postcards show the progression of city landmarks and mainstays, like the St. Pete Pier to the Detroit Hotel.

"The Detroit Hotel is one of our earliest hotels. It's the first structure of its kind in St. Pete," Breckenridge explained. "The Detroit postcards are really fun because the Detroit has changed so much over the years, and we have pretty much every version of it."

Jessy Breckenridge

Postcards can also be the only visual representation of many places lost to time, like closed-down restaurants, completely renovated hotels or even historic homes. Research on historic homes tends to be a big request from community members. Access to the archives must be done by appointment.

"I really want to help spread awareness that these kinds of images are not just valuable, but incredibly unique," Breckenridge said.

The little cards can also capture the tone of the times through the messages written on the backs of them.

"One requirement of this job is that you need to you need to be able to read handwriting, particularly cursive,"  Breckenridge said. "Seeing the fun little messages is fantastic, especially when you have the context for who these people are. You can really start to put together the stories of people's lives."

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