This post was co-authored by Amanda Boczar, Associate Director of Digital Initiatives, and LeEtta Schmidt, Director of Integrated Research and Impact Services at the Tampa Library
Hurricanes have long shaped the landscape, laws, and lives of Floridians. The USF Libraries’ Florida’s Great Hurricanes Exhibit offers insights into six of these influential storms. This digital exhibit takes its name from Joe Hugh Reese’s account of the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, found in his book Florida’s great hurricane, and compliments the physical Tampa Bay Hurricane History exhibit that is on display in the Tampa Library administration suite.
The original online exhibit has been migrated to a new platform and updated to include enhanced navigation on a site that will allow for more interactive features to be added in the years to come. The pages include archival information and history on the Great Gale of 1848, the 1921 Tampa Bay Hurricane, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, the Okeechobee Hurricane 1928, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and Hurricane Andrew, 1992. In 2025, USF Libraries’ completed the migration of approximately 20 exhibits from their previous homes on Omeka to the ERSI Storymaps platform. This move allows for better cross-collaboration between the Libraries’ team and our campus partners, consolidates internal platform use, and opens the door to better mapping of archival content in future exhibits. Exhibit remediation and migration is a vital part of the Digital Initiatives unit’s digital preservation efforts.
As you brace for the season ahead, browse these pages exploring the significant storms from the past and stories of heroism and survival as documented in the archives from the University of South Florida Libraries. Which storm should we highlight next?