November 17, 2023 – (KEY WEST, FL). On Thursday, November 30, join research anthropologist and author Dr. Paul Michael Taylor as he presents his findings on a research and public outreach project being carried out by the Smithsonian in cooperation with the San Carlos Institute as part of the Key West Art & Historical Society’s Distinguished Speaker Series. His talk entitled, “American Volunteers in Cuba’s Insurgent Army: New Discoveries about a Volunteer Cavalry’s 1898 Incursion into Cuba During the Spanish-American War” takes place from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the San Carlos Institute, 516 Duval Street.
This initiative developed from Dr. Taylor’s recent discovery of previously unpublished historical documents written by William Louis Abbott (1860-1936), which he has now published in the Florida Historical Quarterly. Taylor will be joined by Matthew Lawrence Arnold, also of the Smithsonian Institution, and both will set the events recounted in these documents within the broader history of the Spanish-American War, the history of Florida, and of US-Cuban relations, including the role of Cuban American civilian volunteers who mustered at Tampa.
“The Smithsonian is working closely with the San Carlos Institute to increase public understanding of this important period in our history,” says Dr. Cori Convertito, curator for the Society. “The first-hand accounts of conditions at Tampa where volunteer forces assembled provide an exceptional insight into the insurgent movement and the ultimate success of the Cuban people to gain independence from Spain.”
The presenter, Paul Michael Taylor, is a research anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. He is curator of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern Ethnology and head of that museum’s Asian Cultural History Program. He is also the author or editor of numerous books and scholarly articles on the ethnography, ethnobiology, linguistic anthropology, and art or material culture of Asia.
To reserve tickets for the lecture; visit kwahs.org/dss-cubaarmy – $12 for KWAHS members, $15 for non-members. This program is sponsored in part by the Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the State of Florida, The Helmerich Trust, Aloys & Carol Metty, and the John & Marilyn Rintamaki Family Charitable Fund. For more information, contact Cori Convertito, Ph.D. at 305-295-6616 x507 or [email protected]. Your Museums. Your Community. It takes an Island.
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IMAGE 1: American volunteers in the Spanish-American War will be the topic for the Key West Art & Historical Society’s upcoming Distinguished Speakers Series talk, “American Volunteers in Cuba’s Insurgent Army” with Smithsonian curators Dr. Paul Michael Taylor and Matthew Lawrence Arnold on November 30. (Photo Credit: Key West Art & Historical Society)
