Presents

An Index to the Burgert Brothers Photography Collection

at the

Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

Click here to browse the collection and make searches with the aid of thumbnails of the images.   Or you can browse the breakdown of the files into dated intervals presented below.

The data

Some Comments

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System has done yeoman service in digitizing many of the photographs taken by Burgert Brothers from the 1890's into the 1960's in Tampa, Florida and the surrounding area.  They make note of this collection at http://www.hcplc.org/hcplc/liblocales/jfg/H&G/burgert/, give information about the collection, and tell how to access the archives using the online library catalog on THOR (the Library Catalog link on the main library page).  

Originally this was a Telnet link for those of us accessing the catalog via the Internet, and it gave you a glimpse of what the Internet was like before the World Wide Web came along. Since I love old photographs, I wanted a better way to browse an index of these files, where, with the click of my mouse, I could then view the photograph.  I put my programming skills to work, and the links below will demonstrate the results.

The library now has moved into the modern age with a new search feature for their catalog.  Go to http://www.thpl.org/ and click on the Catalog link.  When that page opens click on the Quick Search menu item.  Then use burgert brothers as your Quick Search Text. 

There are now 13,222 photos in the index as of January, 2005. There were 8,578 photos in the index as of 7/1/2002. When I first compiled this listing in December, 1999, there were 4,458, and I assume the library is adding listings on a regular basis. Since a web page with 13,222 links would take a long time to load on your computer, I broke the list down into 12 web pages based on the date of the photographs.  To view one of the 12 lists, click on the appropriate link below.  Since some of the pages are over 500KB in size, they my load slowly. When loaded a page will have for each photo Link, Year, Title, and Notes. To search for something of interest in one of these Archives, e.g., the word Cigar, simply have your browser do a search for cigar (Find in the Edit menu of Microsoft Internet Explorer) while on one of the archive pages.

As in any large database, there are errors. As you browse the collection, you most probably will find a very small number of  instances where a file is listed, but no picture is produced when you click on it.  In another type of error the picture does not match the Title. Considering the size of the database, such problems are understandable.

I welcome comments and ideas at William LaMartin.  Have fun.

Since creating this site, the library has changed its policy as regards the photos.  They originally had the following statement as to the use of the photos:

Copies of prints may be used in exhibits, displays and publications, providing a credit line stating: Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System accompanies each print.

That statement is still there, but they are well into the process of putting "watermarks" on all the Burgert photos available online. Since this watermark--similar to what is displayed below--situated in the center of the photo pretty well defaces the photos, they have lost a lot of their appeal for casual browsing. I suppose the purpose of the watermark is to discourage the printing of the images--which, in my opinion, wouldn't print out all that well anyway due to their low resolution.   The library is certainly entitled to do whatever it desires, but we can hope that at some point they may reconsider the watermark and replace the watermarked photos with the original ones.