The Orange County Regional History Center (Website) recently unveiled some enhancements to its core exhibitions, which have been on display since the museum opened in 2001.
The improvements include increased bilingual content, more accurate and appropriate language, and the addition of new interactive components.
Throughout the fourth floor of the museum, visitors can now explore the language of some of Central Florida’s native people, the Timucua. Captivating animations projected across the exhibition’s skyscape share the history of centuries of conflict across our state. A hands-on interactive invites museumgoers to activate a large screen demonstrating the science of how sinkholes occur, and how they may have even had an impact during the time of the wooly mammoth.
Museum visitors can also look for fresh narratives popping up across all the museum’s galleries. One such example is the museum’s ornate historic courtroom where text panels now share stories of cases that happened here, including the story of Lenny Randle, a Black Major League baseball player whose 1977 trial in Orlando after an altercation with his manager became a national event.
Additionally, text panels throughout the museum are gradually being updated to bilingual content. Since 2016, the History Center’s special exhibitions—such as the nationally award-winning Figurehead: Music & Mayhem in Orlando’s Underground currently on display—have been presented in both English and Spanish.