New T.T. Wentworth exhibit on City of Five Flags opens tomorrow

As the first European settlement in the continental United States, Pensacola boasts a richly diverse and storied history that is getting the full treatment in a new, interactive, multimedia exhibit entitled Pensacola: City of Five Flags, opening Nov. 26, 2013, at the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum.

Made possible in part by a grant from BP’s Gulf Tourism and Seafood Promotional Fund, the new exhibit, Pensacola: City of Five Flags at the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum will immerse visitors in more than 450 years of Pensacola’s history (Pensacola celebrated its 450th anniversary in 2009).

Historic Renovation
The new exhibit replaces the previous historical exhibit of the same name, and will occupy the entire 3000 square-feet of the first floor of the Spanish Revival-style museum building, Pensacola’s former City Hall, built in 1907. The flagship of the Historic Pensacola Village of the University of West Florida Historic Trust, the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Museum has undergone extensive renovation to house the new exhibit that will reveal how Pensacola transformed itself from a colonial wilderness into a thriving commercial center and tourist destination.

The interactive multimedia stations, immersive exhibits and local artifacts from the museum’s vast collection will create a content-driven experience, showcasing Pensacola’s diverse and vibrant history as told from the standpoint of the common citizens who lived in Pensacola and the region at various times throughout its 450-plus years.

“After educating visitors to Pensacola’s history for the past 10 years, UWF Historic Trust felt it was time to reexamine the City of Five Flags exhibit,” says University of West Florida Historic Trust C.O.O., Robert Overton, Jr. “With the assistance of the Tourism and Seafood Grant, we were able to commit to a total renovation of the exhibit. In November, we will welcome visitors to a whole new experience of our rich past and starting point for further exploration of Historic Pensacola. We hope The City of Five Flags exhibit will become the catalyst for heritage tourism in the Pensacola area.”

From Panzacola to Pensacola
Pensacola: City of Five Flags begins with the history of the region’s early Native American people who for thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans, moved in and out of the area around Pensacola Bay, or Panzacola, as the early Spanish explorers discovered it to be named, after the indigenous population, and meaning “long-haired people” or “hair people. The exhibit spans Pensacola’s earliest settlement and possession by the Spanish in the 16th century, through its times under the flags of the French, British, Confederate States and the United States, and threads historical and archeological artifacts throughout. Nowhere else in North America can visitors see materials recovered from a ship of the 1559 Tristan De Luna expedition, or from a ship of colonization that dates this early in the Spanish Entrada into Florida.

Free to the public, Pensacola: City of Five Flags opens Nov. 26, 2013, at the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum, 330 South Jefferson Street, Pensacola. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can call 850-595-5990, or visit www.historicpensacola.org, for more information.