Ryder Mobile Homes Park Collection
name: label: Author
content: Ryder Mobile Homes, Inc.
label: Names
content: Ryder, Ralph
label: Donor
content: Zink, Philip G.
label: Donor
content: Zink, Scott
topic: label: Topic
content: Mobile home industry
label: Topic
content: Recreational vehicle industry
label: Topic
content: Recreational vehicle living
label: Topic
content: Recreational vehicles
label: Topic
content: Mobile home living
label: Topic
content: Mobile homes
label: Topic
content: Mobile home parks
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Scott and Phillip G. Zink on July 10, 2001.
creator: label: Author
content: Ryder Mobile Homes, Inc.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Ryder Mobile Homes Park Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: The collection documents trailer park life, particularly the Ryder Mobile Homes Park founded by Ralph Ryder in New Haven, Connecticut in 1930.
bioghist: label: Historical note
content: Ryder Mobile Homes, Inc. operated a mobile home park in New Haven, Connecticut from 1930 to 1981. Ralph Ryder established the company in 1930. He built and lived in a house car, a trailer on a truck body, near New Haven, Connecticut. The company designed and built its own recreational vehicles in the 1940s and operated a dealership circa 1950 to 1981, where it sold many different brands of mobile home trailers and recreational vehicles.  Ryder began selling trailers in 1936 and moved his sales operation and trailer home to a ten-acre wooded lot in Hamden, Connecticut, that he purchased from Henry Usher.  He opened his trailer lot to other residents, creating one of the first mobile home parks in the United States.  The trailer lot expanded to sixty acres and is still in operation.  Ryder's nephew, Gary Zink, joined the business in 1947.  Zink continued the business operations after Ryder's death in 1973 and then sold the business in 1999.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15 Cubic feet (44 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1920s-2001
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0777
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Advertisements
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Trade catalogs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into seven series.

Series 1: Ryder Mobile Homes Park, 1930-1990s

Series 2: Residential Mobile Homes Materials, 1947-2001

Series 3: Recreational Trailer Materials, 1967-1972

Series 4: Mobile Homes Trade Literature, circa 1920s-circa 1970s

Series 5: Mobile Homes Accessories Trade Literature, 1945-1994

Series 6: Magazines, 1936-1973

Series 7: Photographs, 1928-1989
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, 2002.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Advertisements -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Trade catalogs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collecton consists of photographs, trade literature, plans, park bulletins, specifications, sales materials and contracts from manufacturers, articles, and sales literature on the company's own products. There are some personal items relating to the company founder Ralph Ryder. The photographs depict the Ryder Mobile Homes Park, and its trailers and residents, as well as other mobile homes and recreational vehicles.