The Cigar Industry Changes Florida

Ybor City

The WPA Stories were created by writers working for the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Project Administration (WPA) in Florida. Compiled in 1941, "Ybor City" gives a 13-page overview of the city, past and present.

Flower of Tampa

This film uses the story of a young man visiting his uncle, a cigar manufacturer in Tampa, to showcase the city’s cigar industry. Produced in the 1950s by Florida Film Studio, with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the Cigar Manufacturing Association of Tampa.

Cigarmaker’s Union Dispute in Tampa

L. M. Bryan’s essay is an example of the short histories written by authors working for the Florida Federal Writers’ Project, a branch of the Works Progress Administration, during the Great Depression.

Cashier's Report and Director's Meetings

Under the Bank of Tampa’s leadership, the Tampa Board of Trade donated funds for Vicente Ybor to relocate his cigar industry from Key West to Tampa.

The bank continued to be closely tied to the cigar making industry, as these documents attest.