Our Florida Legacy
 
Land, Legend & Leadership...

is an elegant, full color coffee table book featuring the richly evocative paintings created by Christopher Still for the Chamber of the Florida House of Representatives. In the paintings, our state’s story is depicted against glowing background panoramas with intriguing details concealed within each scene. Our Florida Legacy elaborates upon the historic events that inspired the paintings and includes interwoven vignettes that illustrate the concerns, activities and achievements of Florida’s dedicated lawmakers since territorial days.

As Floridians, we enjoy the rich gifts of our lush natural environment, our long and colorful cultural history, and a gracious and bountiful lifestyle passed on to us through the vision of our own state leaders.

In order to fully appreciate these gifts, it is important to see them through the lens of our shared environmental, cultural and political history; only then can we truly grasp the significance of the great legacy we now enjoy.

The Florida Legislative Research Center & Museum is pleased to offer this important perspective, as seen through the eyes of the artist, Christopher Still, whose love for our state and whose dedication to creating a stunning and accurate depiction of our state history is unsurpassed.

Our Florida Legacy, and the accompanying DVD Painting Our Florida Legacy (view a sample), provide a fascinating study of the artist Christopher Still at work on the paintings. His research, preliminary sketches, and attention to detail give the paintings their authenticity. Each of the eight paintings is reproduced in the book as a dramatic panoramic foldout with a numbered key to help the reader recognize and place the many historical artifacts and symbolic elements.

First edition copies of Our Florida Legacy are available for your $55.00 contribution to the Florida Legislative Research Center & Museum. Our Florida Legacy and the accompanying DVD Painting Our Florida are available as a set for your contribution of $80.00. This beautifully written and illustrated book is essential to the Florida collection of your home library and is a wonderful gift for family, friends and colleagues who share your love for our great state.

Order a copy of Our Florida Legacy, and the accompanying DVD Painting Our Florida.
 
 
The Land...

Viewed through palmettos, pines, or pink skies, spectacular Florida sunrises and sunsets convey a message of beauty and hope that connects yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
 
The Legend...

By the early 1830s a new Seminole leader had emerged, not a hereditary or elected chief but a Red Stick warrior distinguished by remarkable valor and resolve. Legendary accounts credit Alabama-born Osceola with plunging a dagger into the Treaty of Payne's Landing and vowing to fight to remain in Florida. He was without question instrumental in setting off the events that led into the Second Seminole War. ...With cunning and fearless audacity, he outwitted five U.S. generals. Florida, with its uncharted, mosquito-infested territory, became known as a place for crushing brilliant military careers rather than making them.
 
The Leadership...

The promise of each generation is to learn from the past and accomplish in the present what might best serve future generations. As Florida grew to become the fourth most populous state, its citizens have struggled to fulfill this promise by seeking the balance point where growth, diversity, and opportunity can best benefit the state and all of its people.