Drew Field, west view of installation buildings and grounds, including covered walkways: Tampa, Fla.

Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

About this photograph

Photograph Order Number

PA 10098

Negative Number

59324

Date

May 21, 1946

Creator

Burgert Brothers

Publisher

Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library

Date of Photographic Print

1994 printing

Source (original item)

1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm. +1 negative (10 x 13 cm.)

Format

JPEG2000

General Notes

Neg. no. 59324 ; taken May 1946.;Sequential shot with PA 10097 and PA 10731.;

Subjects

Tampa in the 1940s

World War II put Tampa in uniform. MacDill Field opened in April 1941 and turned into a major bomber-training base — B-17s, B-26s, later B-29s — with as many as 15,000 personnel, plus Drew and Henderson Fields backing it up. The shipyards became the biggest employers in town: Tampa Shipbuilding turned out minesweepers, cargo ships, and destroyer escorts, while McCloskey's yard at Hooker's Point built concrete ships, then steel freighters. Gasparilla sat out 1942 through 1946 and came roaring back in 1947 — that's when the children's parade started. After the war the uniforms went home but the growth stuck around: about 108,000 Tampans in 1940 became nearly 125,000 by 1950. This decade's photographs capture a city mobilized and then rebuilding — military installations, working shipyards, and streets adjusting to peacetime growth.

Sources: Tampa's MacDill Field during World War II (University of South Florida Libraries); Shipbuilding in Tampa During World War II (University of South Florida Libraries); Gasparilla History (Gasparilla Pirate Fest); Tampa at Midcentury: 1950 (University of South Florida Libraries)