Tin Can Tourists Capture Vibrant Seminole Life: The Marks Collection

Welcome back to our Seminole Snapshots Series! In this series, we highlight photographic collections or photographers who have captured pivotal moments in Seminole history, tourism, industry, or culture. This week, we look at the Don and Gladys Marks Collection, held by the State Archives of Florida. We have featured some of the Marks Collection before; many of the images that have been shared of Deaconess Bedell in a previous blog post were taken by Donald Marks.

Tin can tourists during the golden age of camping in Florida’s 1960s through the 1980s, the Marks captured over two decades of life on the road. Many of these snapshots featured Seminoles, friends and acquaintances of the Marks’. Today, we explore the collection left behind, and these incredible slice of life moments.

In our featured image, you can see a close-up snapshot of Jimmie Billie holding his brand-new daughter’s hand in the Everglades, circa 1961.

 

The Rise of Tin Can Tourism and Camper Culture

In the mid 1910s, a series of road improvement and expansion projects would, quite literally, begin to pave the way for Florida and Seminole tourism. In 1915, the Dixie Highway Association began the planning and construction of a number of paved roadways. These roads would connect the interior of the state, from Miami all the way to the Northern Florida border. As these roads began to connect the Florida coasts, and then Florida to the rest of the country, interest in automobile tourism began to rise.

By the time the Tamiami Trail opened in 1928, interest in open Florida roads was booming. Tamiami Trail offered a pathway across the Everglades, something that had been unheard of only a few years before. Tourists sought out small towns and hidden gems, exploring small corners of the state with zeal.

As these roads opened, Seminoles shifted as well, setting up tourist camps along the Trail that would define Seminole tourism for generations. These first tourists were wanderers, modifying their Model Ts into campers, where they could live for weeks at a time. These pioneer “Tin Can Tourists” would pave the way for the golden age of camping in Florida only a few decades later.

Although the first wave of tin can tourists were in the 1920s and 1930s, the post-war flush of the 1950s and 60s saw a massive resurgence. With tourist dollars rolling in, the state began to designate several parks, as well as investing in road improvement and tourism projects. Increasingly mobile retirees began to journey south, staying in relative luxury in the brand-new trailer parks and campgrounds cropping up throughout the state.

 

Don and Gladys Marks

Don and Gladys Marks would be just two of many caught in the flush of the golden age of camping. From Fort Wayne, Indiana, Donald Marks had owned a camera store, and was an accomplished photographer. In a 2020 article the Marks’ nephew Jim Haverland reminisced on their travels, sharing “They traveled in an Airstream trailer that I can still remember vividly. Don owned a camera store in Fort Wayne and was an accomplished photographer, having many photographs published in National Geographic magazine.” Other than this one article, which details Haverland’s attempt at appraising some of Paul Billie’s paintings left to his mother by the Marks, Don and Gladys’ story and history is basically nonexistent online.

Without their photo collection, their experience and story may have been lost to time. But, we do have their photos. The Florida Memory Project and State Archives of Florida hosts almost a thousand images taken by the Marks, all online for anyone to peruse. The collection tells a story of over two decades of travel; of friends and families, tragedies, and mundane moments captured on film. We encourage you to explore the collection, which can be found through the Florida Memory Project.

 

Hurricane Donna

Hurricane Donna would hit South Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 10, 1960. It was the strongest hurricane of the 1960 Atlantic storm season and caused a harrowing amount of damage and loss of life. Below, you can see a shot taken by Donald Marks detailing some of the destruction in Everglades city.

The collection features a number of images showing the incredible destruction caused by the storm, but also the relief efforts by the Marks themselves and Deaconess Bedell. Hurricane Donna would destroy the Glades Cross Mission, and Bedell’s home.

Artist Paul Billie

Paul Billie was a friend of the Marks and shows up repeatedly in their images throughout the years. Although he is best known as a painter, the artist experimented with a number of mediums. Interestingly, a basket made by Billie can be found in the Florida Museum of Natural History’s collection, and was featured in the 2017 exhibit Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating: 100 Years @FloridaMuseum.

In the exhibit archive, Bill Marquardt shares what makes the basket unique. He shares that “Now, making baskets is traditionally a woman’s art, so that Paul Billie made it was unusual. Early on, utilitarian baskets were made from split cane or palmetto stems, but later some were made of tight bundles of pine needles. And still later sweetgrass become a really popular medium for the Seminoles. But this basket of Paul Billie’s used a combination of pine needles and sweetgrass. Also, it features triangular step designs which are very unusual in Seminole work. So this basket is not only beautifully made, but it’s unusual in several ways and we are privileged to have it in our collection.”

 

Other Seminoles in the Collection

Throughout their travels, the Marks photographed a wide variety of things, capturing on film the unique and fleeting golden age of camping in Florida. Donald snapped prolifically, documenting flora, fauna, their travels, friends, and acquaintances. What is special about this collection is that on the face of it, it is not particularly unique. The Marks captured normal, everyday moments of their friends, people they met along the way, and in essence captured small slices of daily life throughout these decades. Below, you can find just a handful of these incredible moments. We encourage you to peruse the entire online collection on the Florida Memory Project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1962 copy of early picture of Seminole girls. The image is a copy of a Real Photo postcard taken at Silver Springs. Note the traditional hairstyles, capes, and heavily beaded necklaces. You can find out more about traditional Seminole fashions in a previous blog post.

 

 

 

Don and Gladys pose with Deaconess Bedell. Gladys is showing her her new skirt, made by Susie Billie. May 1961. The accompanying note states that the skirt was made with over 3,200 individual pieces of fabric in the patchwork.

 

 

Interested in more of our Seminole Snapshots series? Previously, we have looked at the works of Julian Dimock, Irvin M. Peithmann, William Boehmer, John Kunkel Small, JJ Steinmetz, W. Stanley Hanson Sr., Ethel Cutler Freeman, Deaconess Bedell, and past Seminole Christmases.

 

Author Bio

Originally from Washington state, Deanna Butler received her BA in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. Deanna moved to Florida in 2016. Soon, she began working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Deanna was the THPO’s Archaeological Collections Assistant from 2017-2021. While at the THPO, Deanna worked to preserve, support, and process the Tribe’s archaeological collection. She often wrote the popular Artifact of the Month series and worked on many community and educational outreach programs. She lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband, two sons, and dog.