The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center’s annual Salute to Veterans exhibit is currently on display until Tuesday, January 5, 2021. The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center is an award-winning history organization located at 106 S. Evers St. in historic downtown Plant City.
This year’s exhibit is a truly special one.
Ed Verner, Plant City Photo Archives president, said, “The exhibit this year will contain over 700 photos of local veterans as well as a special exhibit prepared by Ivan Cardwell, who experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis in a personal way.”
Cardwell was a United States Air Force staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and working out of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex during one of the most pivotal moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Raven Rock Mountain Complex is an underground nuclear bunker near Blue Ridge Summit in Pennsylvania that has been called an “underground Pentagon.”
His exhibit is based on those moments and the crucial story of the unfolding of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The exhibit contains 10 large panels.
The exhibit also displays a photo of United States Army private first class Henry Van Demps, who died in Vietnam in 1966 and was recently honored at Garden of Peace Cemetery in Plant City.
There are photographs and the story of Craig Mills, the most highly decorated Plant City soldier in World War II. Additionally, the Purple Heart and the story of Elmer Jones Hiott, a member of the 85th Armored Division who was killed in action in Luxembourg in October 1944, is also on display.
This extraordinary exhibit contains so much history. It is something for everyone to see.
The Salute to Veterans exhibit is on display in the Photo Archives Gallery from Monday through Thursday, 10:15 a.m. until 6 p.m.
The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center and its library were set up in 2010. It contains valuable documents and papers from the community and is open to the public.
The mission of the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center is the preservation of the community’s history and heritage through the collection and preservation of the community’s photographs and documents and developing the stories wrapped around those images.
For more information, please visit www.plantcityphotoarchives.org or call 754-1578.
