Times staff
TAMPA — Nothing to do Saturday? Go back in history.
The Tampa Bay History Center downtown will offer free admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday for all visitors during Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day Live!
As part of the special day, historical re-enactors portraying Army, Marine Corps, and Florida National Guard will be on hand to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.
Costumed historical interpreters will share hands-on displays of artifacts, uniforms and memorabilia from the era.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to see the History Center's current temporary exhibition, Gateways to the Caribbean: Mapping the Florida-Cuba Connection, which explores 500 years of interactions between Florida and Cuba through historic maps and other documents dating back to the 1500s. The exhibit is on view through January 2018.
Visitors will need to download an official Museum Day Live! ticket from the Smithsonian Magazine website, which is good for two people. Tickets can be found at Smithsonian.com/museumday.
A Smithsonian Affiliate museum, the Tampa Bay History Center is among a prestigious national list of affiliates, one of only 13 in Florida and one of only three in the Tampa Bay area.
For more information about the History Center, visit tampabayhistorycenter.org. For more information about Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day Live!, visit smithsonian.com/museumday.