Through March 24, 2019, the Boca Raton Museum of Art reveals the history of Florida through a new exhibition of 200-plus works, spanning three centuries: “Imagining Florida: History and Myth in the Sunshine State.” Historically, Florida’s role in the world of art dates to the once-flourishing art colony established in St. Augustine during the late 1800s by developer and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler, which continued during the 1900s at industrialist James Deering’s Vizcaya estate.

The works included in the exhibition were created by artists inspired by the Floridian landscape, and were assembled from numerous museum collections around the country, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum. Many will be shown in a museum setting for the first time.

Photographs include “Bettie Page – at Africa USA – Boca Raton, FL” by Bunny Yeager; “A couple prepares to launch a canoe on the Hillsborough River (1922)” by Burgert Brothers; and “Unidentified developer with a scale model of the Longboat Harbour Condominium development (1969)” by Joseph Steinmetz.

Paintings and hand-colored etchings include botanicals from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Albert Ernest Backus’ “Sewall’s Point;” Doris Lee’s “Florida Vacation;” and John Singer Sargent’s “Basin with Sailor, Villa Vizcaya, Miami, Florida.” An intriguing display of Florida curiosities includes alligator lamps, souvenir television trays and colorful road maps.

Other artists and photographers in the exhibit include Milton Avery, Martin Johnson Heade, Winslow Homer, Laura Woodward, Purvis Young, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Louis Comfort Tiffany, John James Audubon, Frederic Remington, William Bartram, Sally Michel, Thomas Moran, George Catlin, Frederick Frieseke and George de Forest Brush.