George White’s cartoon captures Tampa’s ‘winter tourist’ season

This November, we’re highlighting “Blowing the Man Down South,” a cartoon by George White for the Tampa Morning Tribune. The cartoon appeared on the front page of the Tampa Morning Tribune on November 22, 1948.

The illustration shows a snowbird pushed south by wind labeled “Sleet and Snow.” The traveler’s coat reads “Winter Tourists,” as he moves towards Florida. The drawing captures a seasonal migration that continues today: as colder weather arrives in the North, visitors head south for winter.

White’s cartoon is one of many preserved in the Tampa Bay History Center collection. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1901, he moved to Tampa with his family in 1915. He took a correspondence course in drawing and later studied art with Tampa artist Walter Collins. In 1928, White began working as a commercial artist at the Tampa Morning Tribune. By 1934, he was a regular cartoonist whose work appeared on the newspaper’s front page. He also drew cartoons about World War II. In 1943, Byron S. Stephens edited a collection of White’s wartime cartoons titled The War in Black With White.

White’s cartoon reminds us that winter tourism is a staple of Florida’s yearly cycle and common to the Tampa Bay area. Snowbirds keep a primary residence in their home state or country, where family, doctors, neighbors, careers and year-round routines are based. A New Yorker, for example, might spend spring, summer and early fall at home in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany or Long Island, then travel to Florida in late fall and stay in a condo or rental through the winter, and head back home in the spring.

Though the term is often associated with retirees, these days younger generations enjoy following the warmer weather as well. Today, remote work and flexible schedules have made extended winter stays possible for a wider range of travelers.

For visitors, Florida’s mild weather offers a break from waking before sunrise, scraping frost from windshields, shoveling steps and driveways, pulling on boots and gloves, and keeping the heat running through the night. For people who live here year-round, their arrival can mean crowded beaches, busy Publix stores and heavier traffic on Florida’s highways.

Travel has become more flexible since White drew this cartoon. Each winter, snowbirds head to Florida and the tourism culture he captured is alive and well.