Our speaker for our Saturday, November 4th meeting will be none other than “Mr. Miami Memorabilia.”

Also known as “Mr. F. E. C.”) himself, our own SFWA board member, Professor Seth H. Bramson.

 

Even without appearances over the last seven years on A and E, Discovery Channel, Florida Public Broadcasting, Fox FX:  The Collectibles Show, History Channel, Learning Channel and Turner South Network as well as South Florida’s locally-based television stations, it would still be safe to say that our speaker today is nationally known as America’s foremost authority on the history of transportation to, from and within Florida as well as on and about the history of the Southeast Florida Gold Coast.  

 

      A resident of greater Miami for more than 75 years, he is the senior collector of Florida East Coast Railway, and Florida transportation memorabilia, Miami memorabilia, and Floridiana in America. His FEC Railway and Florida transportation memorabilia collections are the largest in the world;  they are larger

than the State museum’s collection and larger than the Flagler Museum’s collection.  

 

     The founder and current president of the Miami Memorabilia Collectors Club as well as of the Greater North Miami Historical Society, and an honorary life member of the Miami Springs Historical Society Museum, the Gold Coast Steam Railroad and Fairchild Tropical Garden, his collections of Miami memorabilia and Floridiana are the largest in private hands in the country, but, and at that, larger than many of the state’s smaller libraries, museums and archives.

 

      A graduate of Cornell University’s famed School of Hotel Administration, he holds Master’s Degrees from St. Thomas University and Florida International University, both in Miami.

 

     After many years teaching at St. Thomas University and Barry University, he is now Adjunct Professor of History at both Nova Southeastern University’s Lifelong Learning Institute and at F I U’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Twice honored by F I U, he was presented with the University’s Torch Award, its highest alumni honor, in 2008.

 

      He is the only person in the country who bears the official title of “Company Historian” with an American railroad, and his book, “Speedway to Sunshine: The Story of the Florida East Coast Railway” is the official history of that famous line.

 

     The author of thirty-three (33) books on South Florida local and Florida transportation history, he is America’s single most published Florida history book author and he is currently working on numbers 34 through 38 (none self-published), the histories of North Lauderdale, North Miami, and Miami Springs as well as of the Flagler System Hotels.

 

     He gives 15 different talks on South Florida local and Florida transportation history, seven of which are his “adult show and tell” talks to which he brings the related memorabilia. The talks include presentations on and about the histories of many of our South Florida cities as well as of and about the histories of Florida’s railroads.

 

     Included in his talks are several of which he is the only person in the country who presents “The History of Discrimination in South Florida,” which is half Jim Crow and segregation and half restricted clientele (that is one of the “adult show and tell” talks); “Debunking the South Florida Myths” beginning with the “oh, Julia Tuttle sent Mr. Flagler some orange blossoms so he extended the railroad to Biscayne Bay” fable (a wonderful but completely without basis in truth or fact fairy tale); “L’CHAIM! The History of the Jewish Community in Greater Miami” and “The Greatest Railroad Story Ever Told: Henry Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension.” In addition, he has written almost 400 articles, seven of which have appeared in refereed or juried publications.

 

     In much of Florida he is known as “Mister F. E. C.” and in South Florida as “Mr. Miami Memorabilia,” but, happily, we know him as “our friend,” so, dear members and friends, we are delighted to have, as our November speaker and presenter, our friend and SFWA board member, “Mr. Miami Memorabilia” himself, Professor Seth H. Bramson.

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