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General Note

A current (2012) nearby plaque in St. Petersburg reads, "On September 1, 1910, The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg's first daily newspaper, initiated its famous 'Sunshine Offer.' Proclaiming St. Petersburg to be the 'Sunshine City,' Lew B Brown, editor and owner of The Evening Independent, vowed to give the paper away 'absolutely free-without cost or condition-to subscribers and strangers alike...everyday the sun doesn't shine on St. Petersburg.' The offer, which remained in force until The Evening Independent merged into the St. Petersburg Times in 1986, attracted national attention, enhancing the city's image as a popular tourist and retirement community. Over this 76-year period, the paper was given away only 296 times!"

Biographical Note

Joseph Janney Steinmetz was a world-renowned commercial photographer whose images appeared in such publications as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Time, Holiday, Collier's, and Town & Country. His work has been referred to as "an American social history," which documented diverse scenes of American life from affluent northeasterners to middle-class Floridians. Steinmetz moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Sarasota, Florida in 1941.