The “Panoramic Views of the Past,”  is a presentation of twenty-four panoramic or “Cirkut” photographs of the Tampa Bay area by the Burgert Brothers.  Many of these images, from the Burgert Brothers Photographic Collection of the John F. Germany Public Library, have never before been exhibited. Their photographic collection presents a unique pictorial record of the commercial, residential and social growth of Tampa Bay and Florida's West Coast from the late 1800s to the early 1960s. 

In the early decades of the 20^th century, Al and Jean Burgert of Burgert Brothers Commercial Photography Studio in Tampa caught panoramic scenes of a May Day celebration in Plant Park; sweeping views of downtown Tampa including the Tampa Bay Hotel; Davis Islands still undeveloped; members of the Italian Club; graduates of Brandon High School; a rustic view of Bayshore Boulevard at Giddens Avenue; Hillsborough High School cadets; and the New York Yankees of 1927. (The Yankees image is also in a show at Tampa International Airport.)

Most of these photographs are forty inches long and ten inches high.  They were made using Cirkut cameras, large-format rotational cameras made between 1904 and 1943.  Rotating on a special tripod, these cameras could capture a 360-degree view.  The negatives of the Burgert Brothers photographs were produced on nitrate film, which had deteriorated over time.  Thanks to a special project undertaken by the Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County, Inc., the 430 Cirkut negatives have recently been preserved and scanned.

The exhibition is made possible through the courtesy of the Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County, Inc., and is sponsored by The Bank of Tampa.