"Everything Musical" at the Philpitt Store

A lecture by Dr. Charles McGraw Groh on July 14, 2024
 
In 1924, S. Ernest Philpitt proudly proclaimed that Tampa residents could find anything musical – a grand piano, any musical instrument, a player piano, a Victrola, records, or sheet music – at his shop on Lafayette Street. As part of the City of Tampa’s annual Archives Awareness Week, Dr. Charles McGraw Groh provided an entertaining look at Philpitt’s impact on Tampa’s music scene in the 1920s. This lecture highlighted several artifacts on display in the Henry B. Plant Museum’s special exhibit Imperfect Harmony: Man, Machine, and Music at the Tampa Bay Hotel.
 

To learn more about the Tampa Bay Casino and its contribution to popular culture and community identity in Tampa, explore the following online exhibits:
 

Lucky Charms: An Opera, a Steamship, and Tampa’s Civic Identity

https://www.plantmuseum.com/exhibits/online-exhibits/lucky-charms
 

Minstrelsy in Black and White

https://www.plantmuseum.com/exhibits/online-exhibits/minstrelsy
 

Music and Meaning: Spirituals at the Tampa Bay Casino

https://www.plantmuseum.com/exhibits/online-exhibits/spirituals