Based on Dr. Leslie Poole’s research about well-known explorers and voyagers who traveled through Florida and wrote about their experiences, this program highlights their words and paths from the colonial period to the twentieth century to reveal what these places have become. Highlighting the Florida that was and the Florida that exists now, Dr. Poole tells a revealing story about the state’s natural history and changing human perceptions of it in hopes of enlightening audiences and inspire them to take their own journey.

Leslie Kemp Poole, a fourth-generation Floridian, is an associate professor of environmental studies at Rollins College. She is the author of Saving Florida: Women’s Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century and coeditor of The Wilder Heart of Florida: More Writers Inspired by Florida Nature.

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.”