Swampy's Florida

Yesterday’s Fort Myers by Marian Godown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a treasure trove of images. All of the books in this series, in my case the Florida ones, are the same. The images of the past are well organized and the captions well written. This series is better than the abundant Arcadia book series, where research is usually jettisoned for speed, lack of knowledge and the seek of glory. The authors were closer to the photos, people involved and over all care.

There is some contextual history included. It would have been great if there had been more. The history narrative appears more quickly assembled than the captions. I’d rather they filled the space with more photographs.

As with the Arcadia series, i can’t recommend this as anywhere near an overall history.It is still a wonderful collection of photos with excellent references to other photos included and lots of nifty details.

I wish the printing had been better. As this was published in ’75, the opportunity was there. I know Pineapple Press has limitations. Funny that Arcadia uses the better paper and the results are often worse than seen here. However, this Seeman collection is, at least, in existence in print than not at all.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.



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