Tampa’s Visual History

As Tampa transitioned from a small village to a boom town to a central metropolitan area, photography helped to tell the story.

The foremost contributing photographers include the Burgert Brothers, Robertson and Fresh, Rose Rutigliano Weekley, and Joseph Scolaro with Tampa Photo Supply, and commercial shooters like Skip and Sandy Gandy, who offer a wealth of collective riches and give us access to Tampa’s visual history. Photography collectors Tony Pizzo, Hampton Dunn, John V. Cinchett, and others have helped preserve and aggregate the photographic work. Many photos are available through the collections of Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative and the University of South Florida Digital Collection.

Other carriers of the Tampa history torch include Mario Núñez and the Tampa Natives Show and Dan-O with Tampapix.com, both of whom offer volumes of information about the city’s photographic history. Modern-day historians Rodney Kite Powell and Gary Mormino continue to explain and educate the public about the vast history that built the foundation of Tampa. Kite-Powell is the Director of the Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center. He is the official Hillsborough County Historian. Mormino is the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History Emeritus and past director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.