Let’s Talk Museums

Key West has no shortage of great museums and although I’ve attempted to hit them all over the past couple of years, I’ve left a few for our return trip. At the top of great museums to visit are the Hemingway House, the Truman Little White House and a ferry or seaplane flight 70 miles west of Key West to Dry Tortuga National Park (fort). The variety of museums is endless, such as the Maritime Museum, Key West Lighthouse and Keeper’s Museum, the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens/Geiger House, the Oldest House Museum (1829), and the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory to name just a few.

I had high hopes for the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum after several recommendations. Fisher’s lifelong passion was diving when he opened the first dive shop in Southern California in 1950; and the hunt for the Spanish treasure ship, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sunk off the Florida coast in 1622. In 1985 following a 16 year search, Fisher and his team discovered the vessel off the Florida Keys and claimed almost a half billion dollars in silver bullion, coins and gold. Following legal disputes with the state of Florida and the federal government, the Supreme Court awarded the findings to Fisher and his investors. While the Fisher story is amazing, and not without personal sacrifice and loss, I felt the exhibits were not engaging and the museum lacked in presentation.

Just across the street, however, at the historic seaport, is a colossal, red brick building whose color and height stands out from all other island structures. Built in 1891, the Old Custom House/Post Office/Federal Courthouse is today home of the Key West Museum of Art & History and provided an outstanding history of Key West, especially great for first-timers to the island. I found this non-profit museum to be an amazing stop filled with the island’s history, an ever-changing exhibit room, and Guy Harvey’s fabulous drawings depicting Hemingway’s, ‘Old Man and the Sea’, the latter worth the price of admission alone! In the late 19th century, Key West was one of the largest, and richest cities in Florida and this stunning building definitely reflects the wealth this island held.