Keepsakes Keep Trip Memories Alive

You go to Paris, you want to bring back a little something to remember it by. It might be a miniature Eiffel Tower, or simply a matchbook from that dreamy little bistro where your significant other ate snails for the first time.

Or it might be a T-shirt.

Whatever it is, however tacky or classy, a souvenir represents a memory. It’s a piece of a journey you can look at and, in a blink, take yourself back to a place, a moment, an occasion.

Pleasure travelers have been bringing keepsakes home from their trips at least since the 17th century heyday of the “grand tour.”

“The first souvenirs were really artifacts and works of art,” says Lynne Withey, author of “Grand Tours and Cook’s Tours, a History of Leisure Travel, 1750 to 1915.” “These young men who went on the grand tour were supposed to be finishing their education, and part of that was to be learning about classic, Renaissance and contemporary art. A lot of the art collections in the stately homes of England date back to the grand tour.”

Not all of what made its way into museums and private collections was obtained by means that would be considered ethical by today’s standards. For example, said Withey, “People traveling in the Middle East before the major archaeological sites had been excavated would go rummaging around and help themselves to whatever items of jewelry, pottery, sculptures, etc. they could find.”

It didn’t take long before savvy locals were helping to satisfy the travelers’ appetites for souvenirs. “Even in the 19th century,” Withey said, “there were people in Egypt who perceived a market for that and got into the business of manufacturing antiquities.”

Tourism to the American West also was spurred by art works, albeit of a different kind.

“People got interested in the West when evidence of ancient habitation first became evident in the 1880s. That - and the contemporary native culture - captured people’s imaginations much more so than the landscapes,” Withey said. “Navajo rugs, Indian jewelry and pottery were popular souvenirs. Along with building hotels, the Santa Fe and other railroads built shops where local tribes could display their wares.”

The first widely manufactured souvenirs, however, were postcards, which were popular by the 1880s. The “kitschy stuff” came later - a lot of it in conjunction with world’s fairs and national parks.

Now, of course, people will buy anything. Nationwide, souvenir standards include key rings, shot glasses, caps, mugs, bells, pens, refrigerator magnets and spoons, most of them emblazoned with a place name. Not to mention all those lousy T-shirts.

Lest we forget, T-shirts with writing and pictures on them are a fairly recent phenomenon, having appeared on the scene only in the 1970s. If you have any old ones, best hang onto them: Who knows, a decade from now they could be as valuable as a Hawaiian shirt from the 1940s.