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Frank Thomas

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Born August 2, 1943, and raised in Clay County, Frank Thomas is a native Floridian whose ancestors came to Florida in the late eighteenth century. His family’s direct connection with the land, his strong Florida heritage, and his love of, and…

Johnny Tillotson

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Jacksonville native Johnny Tillotson has led one of the most successful recording careers in the American music industry, spanning five decades from his first hit single in 1959. Tillotson is widely regarded as one of the most important forerunners…

Tennessee Williams

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Tennessee Williams, whose name has been synonymous with American Theater almost since the production of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, adopted Key West as his home in the 1940s and lived off and on there for more than 30 years. Williams won many of…

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

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In 1983, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. Today, she is widely acknowledged as one of the most acclaimed American composers, writing largely in the post-modernist, neo-romantic style. A graduate of…

Territorial Period

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As a territory of the United States, Florida was particularly attractive to people from the older Southern plantation areas of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who arrived in considerable numbers.