A statewide cut in funding for arts and culture for 2024-2025 means resources we rely on for programming, collection efforts, and research have suddenly vanished. To help make up for this substantial shortfall, we have created an exclusive calendar featuring our Esquire Collection, an array of images highlighting Central Florida life in the mid-20th century. The calendar serves as a reminder of our crucial work, as much of the Esquire Collection needs to be scanned and cataloged – which requires funding.
For a donation of $30 or more by November 30, you will receive this full-color collectible calendar. Take an active role in preserving Central Florida’s continually unfolding story with your donation.
The Esquire Collection
Documenting the Evolution of Florida
In 2018, Orlando photographer Doug Seibert donated to the Orange County Regional History Center a substantial collection from his former business, Esquire Photographers. Jim Squires began the studio about 1960, eventually calling it Jim Squire Photographers (after a stint as Squires & Lamson), with offices in what’s now Ivanhoe Village. It focused on film and television advertising, weddings, headshots, and aerial photography, which became its specialty.
When Squires sold the studio to Loreen “Reen” Briggs about 1970, the new owner simply added an “E” in front of “Squires,” and it became Esquire Photographers. Seibert joined the company in 1978 and continued until it closed in the 2000s. He maintained its photo archives at his home but in 2017 began paring down the collection in anticipation of leaving the area. His donation to the History Center consists of about 100,000 negatives spanning five decades as well as a filing cabinet drawer’s worth of photo prints.
To date, a few hundred negatives have been digitized, uncovering a treasure trove of images documenting many now-gone businesses, churches, neon signage, restaurants, motels, and tourist attractions, in addition to significant aerial documentation of Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Polk, Volusia, Lake, and Brevard counties, all of which fall within the History Center’s collecting scope. Seibert’s work documents the evolution of the region as it grew from rural to urban in the seeming blink of an eye. While the effort to digitize this collection will undoubtedly take years, it stands to be a significant resource for researchers and the community once fully digitized.
