Engraved Powder Horn with Map

3D ModelNoAI

This engraved gun powder horn is from the Tampa Bay History Center’s Touchton Map Collection and is part of a new artifact and virtual exhibit design being developed by the TBHC and the University of South Florida Libraries Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information. These horns were used by soldiers and pioneering frontiersmen to illustrate or sometimes depict their surroundings. This horn shows Saint Augustine after British control in 1763-83 (we know this because the name of the Castillo was changed to Fort Saint Mark during the British period–and is seen engraved on this horn). A depiction of the fort is also noted, as is the St. Francis Barracks.

We have digitally “unrolled” and flattened the map engraved on it, allowing researchers to view and study this early cartography of Florida’s oldest city.