The 100th anniversaries of the Florida State Fair and Gasparilla remind us once again how lucky the Tampa Bay area is to have the Burgert Brothers collection, nearly 15,000 photographs covering local events from the late 19th century to the 1960s.
There's very little brothers Jean and Al, who took over the business from their father in 1918, didn't record as they drove around town in their custom van. In addition to photos of the fair and Gasparilla, there are images of local landmarks, and people from all walks of life. The Burgerts photographed the elite, such as the first Gasparilla court, shown here, and also recorded the lives of minority residents during the era of segregation.
They closed the business in 1963; about a decade later thousands of prints and negatives were found rotting in a South Tampa garage and were snapped up by Hillsborough County's Friends of the Library.
Today, the collection can be seen at the John F. Germany Library on Ashley Street in downtown Tampa. Much of it also can be seen on the Web site, www.hcplc.org and prints may be purchased at the library. You can also see some of the Burgert Brothers collection at the Florida State Fair.
