manuscript maps

Historic maps collected by the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board (HSAPB) in support of their efforts to restore and reconstruct Spanish colonial buildings in downtown St. Augustine.

In 1881 Pliny Reasoner, just turned eighteen years of age, arrived in Manatee County, Florida, from his home in the Midwest. Over the next seven years, he built Royal Palm Nurseries, an enterprise that would become Florida’s longest established nursery business. This collection documents the founding and early history of Royal Palm Nurseries and contains a run of the nursery catalogs that provide information on early horticulture and the introduction of new plants to Florida.