For Teachers

We are pleased to welcome you and your students to the Henry B. Plant Museum!

Your encounter with us will introduce you to the luxurious lifestyle, pastimes, and pleasures of America's elite society during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Our well-trained teaching staff and docents strive to provide your students with opportunities to explore, inquire and discover as they tour Henry B. Plant's magnificent Hotel. Investigating the extravagant corridors and opulently furnished lifestyle vignette rooms is an experience you won't forget.

Please go to the Book a Field Trip link on this website to set up your field trip. Once we have received your request, we will send you a written confirmation and a copy of If Our Hotel Could Talk. Please watch the orientation video (linked below) "Tampa Bay Hotel: Florida's First Magic Kingdom" which can be used to provide students with prior knowledge of their coming adventure. We also recommend that you download the master set of handouts from this web page to share with your students.

Field Trip Logistics

Before arriving, please divide your classes into two equal groups of no more than 40 each. One group will begin with the building tour of what is now The University of Tampa; the other group will embark on the Museum tour. Inside the Museum, this group will often need to be sub-divided again to make it easier to move about our brimming rooms and suites. After the 40-45 minute tours, the groups will switch. Then, if your group has 50 or more in attendance, you will be invited to the Music Room for "Victorians Undressed", our live theater performances. Afterward, you may want to tour Plant Park on your own, using the tour brochure. And a picnic on the grounds is always fun! Feel free to ask students to pack a lunch.

Parking

School Buses: Please stop at the Museum entrance on the east side of Plant Hall to allow students to disembark. The bus should then park in front of the Vaughn Center on Poe Parkway, west of Plant Hall, (the main UT entrance off of Kennedy). Arrangements should be made to pick up the students after the tour, (approx 2 hours later) or to have students walk over to the bus.

Cars: We encourage carpooling. Please park in the Thomas Parking Garage on North B St. and North Blvd., and visitor spaces on North B Street. Students may be dropped off at the the Museum entrance as we direct you where to park. Cars parked in unauthorized locations will be ticketed.

Museum Etiquette

Because the Henry B. Plant Museum is an historic structure filled with fragile items, we ask that teachers advise their students in advance about museum etiquette. We enforce a “Touch With Eyes Only” policy and all backpacks, purses and bags will be stored in the lobby during the visit. Please note that flash photography is not allowed inside the museum. Please note: For the safety of your students and the protection of our Museum, it is required that all teachers and chaperons remain with their student groups during Museum visits and performances.

Admission

Students and chaperons are admitted for $3.00 each. Checks, credit card and money orders can be made payable to Henry B. Plant Museum.

And now booking The Triple Whammy Field Trip Package for grades 3-12. The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, the Henry B. Plant Museum, and the Ybor City Museum State Park are collaborating to offer you and your middle or high school students an extraordinary field trip experience. The Triple Whammy Field Trip allows you to book a full-day cultural experience, with visits to all three institutions. Many Hillsborough County Schools are only allowing 1 field trip per year. Our package lets you take better advantage of field trip monies and time—you and you students will get more bang for your buck. You pay one flat fee of $6.00 for the entire day.

Our museums have only 5 dates set aside for this package. Book it now!

If you have further questions, please contact Heather Trubee Brown, Curator of Education, at 813.258.7304 or at htrubee@ut.edu.

What teachers say about the Henry B. Plant Museum:

"We loved looking at the different rooms!"
"The Museum was most interesting!"
"It was excellent throughout."
"We really enjoyed the show "Victorians Undressed."
"I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the wonderful experience you provided for my students. It not only impacted their knowledge of Florida History, but gave [them] a great appreciation for the things they had never seen before. It was a once in a life-time experience. Thank You so much."

We look forward to meeting you at the Henry B. Plant Museum!

Vocabulary:

Cupola—a small roof dome. The building has four cupolas.
Dome—a generally hemispheric roof. The building has domes over the Music Room, Grand Salon and former hotel dining room.
Minaret—a tall slender tower on a mosque from which Muslims are called to prayer. Minarets are usually found in Middle Eastern countries. The building has six minarets and they have become a symbol of Tampa.

Check out these books in our Museum Store:

Maggie & Max at the Museum
If Our Hotel Could Talk
Through the Keyhole: A Young Person’s Guide to the Henry B. Plant Museum

The Jean Stallings Educational Series:

  • Henry Bradley Plant, The Nineteenth Century 'King of Florida, by Canter Brown, Jr.
  • "A Late Victorian Romp" or The World as Seen from the Tampa Bay Hotel's Vernada, 1891-1901" by Canter Brown, Jr.
  • "An Elegant Frontier": Florida's Plant System Hotels" by Hatty Lenfesty
  • "Bells and Whistles": The Plant Transportation System" by Hatty Lenfesty
  • Henry Plant: Pioneer Empire Builder, by Kelly Reynolds
  • Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age, by R. Wayner Ayers
  • The Plant System of Railroads, Steamships and Hotels, by Gregg M. Turner and Seth H. Bramson
  • Steamships of the Two Henrys: being an account of the maritime activities of Henry Morrison Flagler and Henry Bradley Plant, by Edward A. Mueller
  • The Architecture of Leisure: The Florida Resort Hotels of Henry Flagler and Henry Plant, by Susan Braden

Florida’s First Magic Kingdom