From the Orange County Regional History Center:

“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.”

Read more about the History Center’s fundraiser below:

Esquire Collection Calendar Appeal – Orange County Regional History Center (thehistorycenter.org)