OAST LINESC

Uncover history’s mysteries at new library website

Cindy Lane

Happenstance. Fluke. Quirk. The synonyms for “coincidence” don’t quite capture the astronomical odds of seeing a 73-year-old postcard on a Facebook page one day, then recognizing a colorized version of it in an online historical library 23 hours later.

The Sun has a feature on its website, amisun.com, called “Wish You Were Here,” featuring historic Anna Maria Island postcards, many of them picturing Gulf and bay coastlines.

Toni Herdman’s vintage postcard of her mother on Bradenton Beach on the “Florida, See it Like a Native” Facebook page is a perfect fit, so we asked her for her mother’s name on Monday. Toni wrote back that it’s Romie Hall, and that the postcard dated to 1947 or 1948, she thought.

Meanwhile, The Sun received a notice that the new Manatee County Neighborhood

TONI HERDMAN | SUBMITTED Romie Hall seeks some shade on Anna Maria Island circa 1947-48, posted recently by her daughter, Toni Herdman, on the “Florida, See it Like a Native” Facebook page.

MANATEE LIBRARIES HISTORICAL DIGITAL COLLECTIONS | SUBMITTED A colorized interpretation of the postcard featuring Romie Hall entitled, “Tropical Scene on Gulf of Mexico, Bradenton Beach, Fla.”

Histories web portal was up and running. The new feature in the Manatee Libraries’ Historical Digital Collections was created by Information Services librarian Katie Fleck and intern Amber Aultman over the summer to highlight the varied history and identities of neighborhoods in Manatee County.

The website currently features 33 communities across Manatee County, including Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach, and provides a brief history of each community with photos, postcards, documents and other information relating to each neighborhood.

It sounded like something locals and visitors would be interested in, so we took a look on Tuesday.

And there was the Romie Hall postcard, apparently reworked into colorized artwork and dated 1949.

Herdman never knew about this version of the postcard, and was tickled.

“Wow, this is amazing. Thank you for finding this. I wish she was here to enjoy seeing it… I will share this with my sisters,” she wrote.

Who knows what – or who - you might find on this new online portal? Check it out at www.mymanatee.org/ neighborhoodhistories.

It’s a work in progress, so if you have historical information to share, email katie.fleck@mymanatee.org.