La Florida Stamps to Bloom at Plantation Historical Museum

The Plantation Historical Museum has invited USPS to participate in its celebration of “Florida – 500 Years of History, 1513-2013.”

Alex Sepulveda, Manager, Customer Service Operations, Fort Lauderdale, will deliver remarks on the La Florida stamps at 2:30 pm at the museum on Saturday, June 8.  The official celebration is from 2 pm to 4 pm and is free to the public.  Attached is a flyer about other museum activities at the celebration. 

Location:  511 North Fig Tree Lane, Plantation FL

Museum Phone:  954-797-2722

This is an off-the-clock event for postal employees.

From the moment Ponce de Leon arrived on these shores, Florida has been a destination for dreamers.  Our state occupies a special place in the American imagination, and so these stamps give people another way to share the wonders of Florida. 

Known today for its towering palm trees, flourishing orange groves and opulent displays of flowers, the state earns the name — La Florida — given by the Spanish in 1513.

The first written record of European exploration was the landing of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in March 1513. Traveling with three ships, Ponce de Leon came within sight of the peninsula during Easter week of 1513. He named the land La Florida after Pascua Florida, “Feast of the Flowers,” Spain‘s Easter celebration, and for the display of vegetation visible beyond the shores. 

In 1845, 332 years after Ponce de Leon first stood on its shores, Florida became the 27th U.S. state.