Founded in 1949, The Sailor Circus Academy is Sarasota’s “premier youth circus training program” (yes, there are others). Florida is where in the 1940s the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus wintered. The circus and sideshow industries were headquartered in Sarasota, Tampa and Gibsonton.
Photographer Joseph Janney Steinmetz moved to Florida in 1941. He loved the circus. For one of his most memorable assignments, Steinmetz travelled with the circus, photographing the performers’ life on the road. Here we look through his archive of Kodachrome images from 1940s Florida.
Handing out copies of The Evening Independent: St. Petersburg, Florida
March 19, 1947
Hunting with Texas Jim Mitchell and friends in the Florida Everglades
Date: July 23, 1947
Asolo Theatre: Sarasota, Florida
Date: February 17, 1961
Lazaros Coffee Shop: Tarpon Springs, Florida
Date: April 13, 1947
John M. Gonatos in his curio shop with assistant Niki Vasilikis: Tarpon Springs, Florida, 1942
‘Seminole mother and children: Brighton Reservation, Florida, 1949’
Identified as Mrs. Lonnie Buck, son Roly and daughter Poly.
Nora Carrol and Lois Duncan Steinmetz: Sarasota, Florida
November 1949
New Year’s Eve on the the shantyboat Lazy Bones, December 31, 1947
Everglades Lounge at the Clewiston Inn: Clewiston, Florida
January 1948. The mural in the Everglades Lounge was created by J. Clinton Shepherd in the 1940s.
Venetian Pool: Coral Gables, Florida
Date: ca. 1945. The Venetian Pool, located at 2701 De Soto Blvd. in Coral Gables, Florida.
National Container Corporation Mill: Jacksonville, Florida ca. 1945
Laurence A. Kavanaugh painting his work “The Fundamental Triangle” at the Ringling Art School in Sarasota, Florida, 1947
H.G. Champlin at the L&N Freight Depot at Pensacola, Florida 1945
Unidentified young woman picking cotton
Date: ca. 1945
Ringling Circus performer
Lois Duncan Steinmetz gazing at the Suwannee River Date: 1949
Born in Philadelphia in 1905, Steinmetz, moved to Sarasota Founded in 1949, in 1941 and passed away there in 1985. . His work is now at the State Archives.
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