WFFMM-NAAM Conference 2022

Throughout the United States automobility informed every aspect of twentieth century culture—from how Americans built their cities to what tales became the stuff of urban legend. In Southwest Florida the ubiquity of automobility combined with the uniqueness of the Everglades to create a dynamic wherein the built environment and local subcultures evolved both in spite of and because of the interplay between vehicles and swampland. Leaders from the five local history museums that make up the Collier County Museum Division will share stories of the intrepid visionaries who carved roads through the Everglades to open the area for development and the inventive gearheads who created the swamp buggy—vehicles modified or purpose built specifically to traverse our unusual terrain. We’ll talk about how we present automobility in its specific cultural contexts in Southwest Florida, and how we work collaboratively to tell the smaller stories of Naples, Everglades, Immokalee, and Marco all under the Collier County umbrella.