Tropical Dreams:
A People's History of South Florida

Tropical Dreams explores South Florida history from prehistoric times to the present. Throughout the ages, the story has been characterized by arrivals—the immigration of people from many different places and cultures into the region—and by adaptation to the region's unique subtropical environment.

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Crime in Miami

Now through August 29, 2010

Crime in Miami explores the dual impact of crime and law enforcement in the city of Miami for the past century.

• Learn about prohibition-era rumrunners and infamous gangsters such as Al Capone, unsolved murder cases of the 1950s and the drug wars of the 1980s.
   
• Uncover the forces underlying Miami’s unique criminal history and test your amateur detective skills against those used by the pros.
   
• Use the fingerprint/ID activity to learn how finger prints were examined in the 1920s and 1930s.
   
• Get your mug shot taken and stand before a two-way mirror to try to identify suspects (other visitors) in a line-up. 

Other multi-sensory interactive include a booking station and holding cell, where visitors can experience the claustrophobia of the space, and a display of crime lab equipment and techniques used to solve modern–day crimes.

On display are artifacts, photographs, and documents from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida’s collection, along with material from other institutions, including the Miami-Dade County Clerks Office and the City of Miami Black Precinct Museum. First-hand accounts from victims, witnesses, and police investigators captured on video are displayed on monitors throughout the exhibition.

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Hurricane strikes Hispaniola, June 1495.
Copperplate engraving by Theodor de Bry,  1594.
HistoryMiami, 2008-215-1.

Natural Disasters in the Caribbean, 1495-2010

Now through August 29, 2010

For thousands of years, the people of the Caribbean have endured earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. The most powerful of these occurrences wreak havoc upon humans—damaging or destroying buildings and possessions, and injuring or killing as many as thousands of people.

Hurricanes sweep over parts of the Caribbean every summer, and, occasionally, an especially powerful storm leaves destruction and devastation in its wake. Their frequency reminds us to beware.

Decades or centuries may pass between catastrophic earthquakes or eruptions. For example, four hundred years separate disastrous earthquakes in the Port-au-Prince region. Such infrequency encourages us to forget.