7 Questions With Rick Kilby, Author of Florida's Healing Waters

 

Orlando-based writer and graphic designer Rick Kilby is the author of Florida’s Healing Waters: Gilded Age Mineral Springs, Seaside Resorts, and Health Spas (University Press of Florida, 2020), which received the silver medal for Florida nonfiction from the Florida Book Awards and the Florida Historical Society’s Stetson Kennedy Award. His first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth: Ponce de León and Florida's Magical Waters (University Press of Florida, 2013), won a Florida Book Award in the Visual Arts category. Both titles can be purchased at  https://www.rickkilby.com .

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

I think I can trace my love of history back to when I started working at a downtown Orlando attraction called Church Street Station. I was hired in the late 80s as a graphic designer and all the design work had to have a Victorian look and feel. Having never worked in that style I had to build a new visual vocabulary. My office was in the historic train depot and they had an incredible resource library. Every day I would pore through the books and I fell in love with Victorian typography. From there my love of historic architecture developed and visiting old buildings really helped my passion for history grow.

 

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I think when I start a research project I get slightly obsessed and I have to work hard to maintain balance in my life while allowing myself to be pulled by the momentum of that obsession. Since I have my own graphic design business, I have to plot out when I can do research, and as a result my wife and I often vacation in places related to my research. We’ve gone to places like Bath, England, Saratoga Springs, New York, and Hot Springs, Arkansas while I researched my book. I envy those who can do research full time, but I value the moments when I can fall down the rabbit hole, finding historical connections that call to be written about.

 

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

Although I make a living as a graphic designer, I have been fortunate enough to have the Orange County Regional History Center as a client for over 20 years. In addition to designing their history magazine, Reflections from Central Florida, I act as managing editor soliciting and occasionally writing articles for the publication. My writing career is a creative exercise that allows me to indulge myself in exciting research into Florida’s rich past more than a vocation.

 

4.         Why is studying/knowing history important?

At this point in American history it is critical that we know the truth about the past so we can move forward appropriately. There are many issues today that are controversial that have roots in the past and battles are being fought, in this state in particular, as to how that history is interpreted. As historians we need to speak up.

 

5.         What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

 At this point in my life, I am fascinated by the steamboat era in Florida. I call the period after the Civil War until the beginning of automobile travel Florida’s Golden Age of Bathing. Splendid Gilded Age hotels drew the nation’s elite to the Sunshine state in search of restoration and rejuvenation.

 I think it intrigues me so much because so many non-historians tend to think Florida didn’t exist before the mid-twentieth century. And there are few remnants left from that period, it’s almost easier to explore in vintage photography and print ephemera. I also think I really like the aesthetics of the period – the design and architecture.

 

6.        How did Florida’s Healing Waters affect Florida’s development? 

My thesis is that medical tourists and many healthy people who visited spas, (because it was what the wealthy elite did in the 19th century), were critical in the creation of Florida’s tourist economy that still exists today. Spa towns developed around springs, settlements grew around oceanside resorts where people practiced sea bathing, and hydrotherapy was practiced at sanitariums such as Florida Sanitarium, which is today the enormous Advent Heath hospital system. Florida’s waters were a resource that was commodified to help launch its economy after the Civil war.

 

7.       When it comes to Florida’s unique natural beauty, like its springs, in 2022 and the future, is it difficult to be an optimist?

Yes, it is very disheartening. Most of my talks surrounding my first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth, had an environmental message. While it was well received, the impact has been negligible, and if anything, the state has gone backwards in environmental stewardship. I deliberately focus on the historical aspects of my current book, more than the environmental message. But I often slip in a bit about planting native plants because I think that is what individuals can do to have the biggest impact on the environment that surrounds them.