Clearwater, Florida Public & Civic Life Archive: 94 Photographs of Elections, Political Campaigns, Public Works & Community Ceremonies During the Postwar Sunbelt Boom, 1951–1954

George Fulmer Florida Sunbelt Migration

Photograph

The evolution of public and civic ceremonies in Clearwater, Florida, 1951 to 1954, documenting the ceremonies, political activity, public institutions, youth programs, infrastructure projects, and residential life through which served critical and symbolic functions in the rapid expansion of Sunbelt cities. George Fulmer photographed Clearwater near the beginning of an extraordinary demographic transformation, when the city grew from 15,581 residents in 1950 to 34,653 in 1960, an increase of 122.4 percent. His assignments record that expansion at street level, where campaigns, elections, welfare organizations, public works, graduations, parades, and civic gatherings supplied the institutional framework of a developing Sunbelt community.

Photo archive of approximately 94 items comprising 46 silver gelatin photograph prints with 46 corresponding large negatives housed in 12 numbe"red commercial photo studio envelopes bearing manuscript assignment captions, Clearwater, Florida, principally 1951 to 1954. Silver gelatin photograph prints ranging from 4.5 x 2.5" to 5" x 4", and each negative about 4 x 5 inches. Fulmer's photographs show crowds of both men and women registering or voting among curtained booths; men breaking ground for a city water tank; officials planting a camellia at the county courthouse; a large men's banquet and presentation ceremony; a high school graduation with students filling a decorated auditorium stage; young women in performance costumes; and children and teenagers posed outside a local theater. Political assignments include a 1952 Alto Adams gubernatorial campaign rally outside the Bank of Clearwater, with women wearing "Alto Adams" hats, campaign posters surrounding the speaker's platform, and spectators lining the sidewalk; Republican gatherings beneath American flags and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln; and Eisenhower campaign volunteers holding "Eisenhower" and "I like Ike" placards outside a Clearwater business. Another series follows a street parade with marching participants, balloons, decorated vehicles, storefronts, and spectators, while the envelope is captioned "Youth parade." Fulmer also photographed the Clearwater Welfare Center at 612, where a sign identifies the facility as "Sponsored by the Seventh day Adventist Church," recording a public ceremony at its entrance before an audience of adults and children. The studio envelopes retain captions including "Election day voting," "County court house camellia planting," "Alto Adams for Gov," "Eisenhower for Pres," and "Republican speaker," connecting individual negatives and prints to the assignments under which Fulmer produced them.

Clearwater's postwar expansion belongs to the larger redistribution of American population and political influence toward Florida and the Sunbelt, but Fulmer's assignments establish that transformation through municipal and community activity. Elections are particularly prominent. In 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Florida with 544,036 votes, 55 percent of the statewide total, becoming part of a changing political landscape in a state long dominated by Democrats. The gubernatorial photographs belong to the same election year: Alto Adams campaigned for the Democratic nomination in a contest ultimately won by Dan McCarty, who became governor in January 1953, while contemporary Florida photographic collections similarly record rallies and campaign activity surrounding that election. Fulmer's numbered envelopes demonstrate the process by which such events entered the local photographic record, placing presidential and gubernatorial politics beside voting rooms, welfare work, school ceremonies, youth recreation, courthouse landscaping, water infrastructure, parades, and residential scenes. Light handling wear and occasional curling; studio envelopes with expected toning, handling wear, creasing, and manuscript notations. Overall in good condition.

Item #23829

Price: $550.00