Artifact and Analysis

Document 2
Souvenir Wholesaler

Souvenir sellers everywhere get their merchandise from the same sources. Salesmen of wholesalers and manufacturers roam the country, and at least 40 trade shows are held in every section of the U.S. in January, February, and March. . . .

At the Denver Gift and Jewelry Show . . . exhibitors offered Batman sweatshirts, water pistols, back scratchers; stuffed, plastic and metal animals; leather goods and leatherette; religious chinaware, corn cob pipes, pottery, candles, mugs, music boxes, pennants, scarves, caps and belts; clocks with chimes and cuckoos, and cat clocks with rolling eyes and tail-like pendulums of glittering rhinestones. There were state ash trays, state charms, state spoons, state dishes, state key chains, and wholesalers proclaimed, "We mark all items with the name of Your Own Town."

"Silly Souvenirs and How They Sell," Changing Times, July 1966