Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

You’ve seen this: As the train pulls out, a tourist grabs his camcorder, and captures his last few moments of Tampa. Who knows what for? Maybe he’ll show this to friends and family back home, to show them what the place is like. Or it could be used as extra footage for an upcoming documentary.

A videographer named William Paley worked for Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and was on the train leaving Ft. Brooke when he captured a few seconds of film looking back at the military camp he had been visiting back on May 20, 1898. The first few seconds of the film include a cigar factory in the background. This link takes you to the video. The name of the film is Military camp at Tampa, taken from train. Found at American Memory historical collections at the Library of Congress.

Thanks to Dave at Space Coast Web for the link.