"Here, in this remarkable, previously unknown collection of 230 of [Ralph Middleton Munroe's] photographs from 1800s to 1900, we see a Florida we will never see again. We see people carving out a life on a frontier that was in many ways more unique than any other. Here sailboats were the counter-parts of the covered wagon and the barefoot mailman of the pony express. Through Munroe's camera we see carefully detailed scenes that historians cannot fully describe: the Gold Coast before settlement; the first pictures of the Seminole Indians; Key West as the wrecking capital of the world; beauty primeval and untouched."--Book jacket.