HOW CAN MEMBERS GET INVOLVED

CATEGORIES OF MEMBERSHIP:

 Benefits Include: Free admission to lectures and programs, special invitations to events and tours, program updates and the opportunity to serve on the Friends’ Board of Directors and committees to participate in and plan events.

Tours of the Historical Resources Center (which holds a wealth of historical items, artifacts, papers, books and archeological collections) include:

• Bertha Palmer's steamer trunks, furniture and hand carved doors from her mansion
• John Ringling's hand-painted furniture and the actual hand painted beams from the lobby of Ringling's El Vernona Hotel
• Steamer trunks from John Hamilton Gillespie who arrived from Scotland in 1886 and founded Sarasota
• Payne Park memorabilia including bleacher seats, photos and team banners. The Boston Red Sox played there for 40 years
• Old Atlantic Coast Line Railroad schedule boards
• Archeological artifacts including a mastodon tooth possibly 20,000 years old and many fossils, several of them were found on Jacaranda in Venice