The city of Orlando will turn 150 years old this July, and already a celebration is underway in the form of an exhibit at the Orlando County Regional History Center. The exhibit is called Orlando Collected. It tells the story of the City Beautiful through artifacts, photos, oral histories, and items collected from figures throughout Orlando’s history.
Katie Kelley is Curator of Exhibitions at Orange County Regional History Center. She says the timing of this exhibition’s opening is also part of the story.
“The primary objective of the exhibit is to mark the important milestone that Orlando is celebrating this year,” Kelley said. “It’s the 150th anniversary of its official incorporation, which happened on July 31 of 1875. So our exhibition features 150 items to sort of mark that important 150-year milestone. It's 150 items curated from Orlando's history.”
Those items start from the actual minutes book from the Orlando incorporation vote in 1875, in a courthouse built in part by money supplied by Orlando pioneer Jacob Summerlin.
As for some of the contemporary exhibits, Kelley described one that stands out for her. “We have shoes signed by the Orlando Magic from Shaquille O'Neal's rookie year. So that one's pretty cool! Shaquille O'Neal, right when he was at the start of his NBA career, his time with the Orlando Magic. So that's a fun one.”
Kelley is the main curator of the exhibit, but the Orange County Regional History Center is also calling Orlando Collected a “community-curated” exhibit.
“We actually reached out to people in the community, arts and culture organizations, civic leaders, and individuals who we know have worked to preserve and tell Orlando's story,” Kelley said. That includes items as diverse as an oral history from Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, to a psychedelically painted front door to the once-popular Dandelion Communitea Café, to lavish costumes from famous productions like “Swan Lake” by the Orlando Ballet, to a photo timeline of Orange Avenue in the heart of Orlando’s downtown.
Kids that participated in the history center’s summer camp got to pick an exhibit, too. Kelley said they chose the key that was used to open the jail cells that once resided on the building’s fifth floor. The Orange County Regional History Center was once the county courthouse.
Kelley said one of the themes of the exhibit is finding connections to the people who make up Orlando’s story.
“As I was observing people walking through the exhibit, people were pointing out like, ‘Oh, my dad worked there,’ and ‘Oh, I think my great-aunt is in that photo,’” she said, “and that’s exactly what we wanted to happen, is to have people make those personal connections.”
