This museum is dedicated to St Clair Whitman in 1962. Whitman moved to Cedar Key as a boy in the late 1800’s and was involved in two of Cedar Key’s main industries, the fiber factory and pencil mill.
The museum shows the history of Native Americans, Civil War history, Cedar Key industry and Whitman’s collections. St Clair Whitman was an avid collector of seashells and Native American artifacts. When he was alive, he displayed them in the front room of his house. His collection was even featured in National Geographic in 1955. The seashell collection is awesome and very complete. After he died in 1959, Whitman donated his collections to the University of Florida with the intention they would be displayed in a Cedar Key Museum.
St Clair’s former home was donated to the museum by family and moved to the site in 1991. It’s closed now for renovations but should be open before the end of 2021. It normally shows items from Whitman’s collection and how Cedar Key of old looked like.
The museum sits on 18 acres. Outside there are two Civil War era iron cannons. It is thought that the cannons were placed by Confederate troops in 1861 on Seahorse Key. There are also nature trails through the oaks and pines with placards. The paths are designed for hikers to view themselves as John Muir, the conservation and naturalist that walked 1000 miles to Cedar Key from Indiana.
