The seal of Tampa is Tampa

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

 government's official seal

Seal (device)

A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...

. The seal was made in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in the 1920s by Val Antuono, Sr.

Design

In the center of the seal is a (historically inaccurate) depiction of the steamship Mascotte, which was owned by Henry B. Plant

Henry B. Plant

Henry Bradley Plant , was involved with many transportation projects, mostly railroads, in the U.S. state of Florida. Eventually he owned the Plant System of railroads which became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad...

 and was named after the operetta La mascotte

La mascotte

La mascotte is an opéra comique by Edmond Audran. The French libretto was by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot. The story concerns a farm girl who is believed to bring good luck to whoever possesses her, so long as she remains a virgin...

by Edmond Audran

Edmond Audran

Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful operettas, including Les noces d'Olivette , La mascotte , Gillette de Narbonne , La cigale et la fourmi , Miss Helyett , and La poupée .After Audran's initial success in Paris, his works also became a...

. The ship (along with its sister ship Ollivette, which was also named for an opera

Les noces d'Olivette

Les noces d'Olivette is an opéra comique in three acts composed by Edmond Audran, with a libretto by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot. The work premiered under the direction of Louis Cantin in Paris on 13 November 1879 at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens...

 by Audran) ran between Tampa, Key West

Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....

, and Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 from the mid-1880s until the early 1900s. It was in that capacity that it brought thousands of immigrants and regular shipments of clear Havana tobacco to Ybor City and West Tampa, helping to make Tampa the Cigar Capital of the World

The outside parameter of the city seal shows the "City of Tampa Florida" and "July 15, 1887", the date on which the city was organized under a special act of the Florida Legislature. The seal shown was created by Margaret Joan Hug, a city of Tampa employee. She created (updated) the seal in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Margaret was born on April 4, 1934, in Detroit, Michigan

External links

• The Story of Tampa