HistoryMiami Museum

HistoryMiami is the main museum of local history for Miami-Dade County, and a better introduction to the city than almost anything else you can do on your first day. The permanent collection covers the region from the Tequesta people who lived here before European contact through the Spanish colonial period, the Seminole Wars, the land booms of the 1920s, the waves of immigration from Cuba, Haiti, and Central America, and the development of the Art Deco district and the post-war resort industry.

The museum pays particular attention to Miami's Caribbean and Latin character, with exhibits on Little Havana, Little Haiti, and the Cuban exile community. The building is in downtown Miami near the Pérez Art Museum, and the permanent collection is supplemented by regular temporary exhibitions covering local architecture, immigration history, and African American history in Miami-Dade County.

things to do museum
A story
Miami's history is almost comically compressed. In 1896, when the city was incorporated, it had a population of around 300 people. By 1925, at the height of the first Florida land boom, it had exploded to 75,000. The whole drama of American boom-and-bust, racial segregation, Caribbean immigration, and resort development played out within about a century — which gives Miami a history that is far more interesting than its reputation as a young city would suggest.