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	Record Group Number:	900000
	Series/Collection Number:	M93- 2
	Creator:	Tin Can Tourists of the World.
	Title, Dates:	Tin Can Tourists of the World records, 1920-1982.
	Amount:	2.25 cubic ft.
	Medium Included:
	Organization/Arrangement:	Arranged by record type.
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	Biographical/Historical:	The Tin Can Tourists of the World (TCT) was an organization of camping and "trailering" enthusiasts founded at a Tampa, Florida, campground in 1919. The goals of the group were to provide its members with safe and clean camping areas, wholesome entertainment, and high moral values. The Tin Can Tourists of the World was at one time the largest organization of its kind but is now defunct. The origin of the term "tin can" is not clear. One school of thought contends that it refers to the campers' reliance upon canned foods; another asserts that it refers to the small Ford automobile of the era, the Model T or "Tin Lizzie," which was the car of the middle class from which the majority of TCT members came. The original recognition emblem of the TCT was a tin can soldered to the radiator cap of a member's car. The group usually held at least two meetings a year: a winter meeting at a campground in Florida and a summer meeting at a campground in Michigan. The Florida meetings convened in various places, including Tampa, Sarasota, Ocala, and Eustis. These meetings provided the opportunity for transacting official club business and taking part in the numerous social activities offered. For many years these club gatherings provided places of exhibition to the manufacturers of trailers, mobile homes, and camping gear. This aspect of the gatherings continued until after World War II when manufacturers' trade shows took the place of exhibiting at TCT meetings.
	Summary:	This collection documents the organization and activities of the Tin Can Tourists of the World (TCT). The types of records include scrapbooks, photographs, convention programs, necrology (memorial) service programs, official records (constitution, by-laws, minutes), correspondence, and an early membership list. The scrapbooks contain the bulk of the information available. The collection documents the functions of the TCT, the various camp sites where it held meetings, the evolution of the trailers used and the automobiles that towed them, and the activities and amusements that members enjoyed. The collection includes limited materials of an official nature. The minutes cover only a few dates of the officers' meetings. The correspondence is similarly meager in scope. However, there is a set of convention and necrology programs for the period of 1940 to 1975 that contain the names of the officers and the recently deceased members for the years covered.
	Finding Aids:	Folder listing available. 0
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	Ownership/Custodial History:	These materials had been included in a donation to the Museum of Florida History by Ray and Mary Levett on July 3, 1986.
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	Electronic Records Access:
	Subject Access Fields:	Outdoor recreation Florida Tourist trade Florida Trailer camps. Travel trailers Societies, etc Scrapbooks. aat Photographs. aat Programs. aat Eustis (Fla.) Hillsborough County (Fla.) Lake County (Fla.) Marion County (Fla.) Ocala (Fla.) Sarasota (Fla.) Sarasota County (Fla.) Tampa (Fla.)
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