When you visit someplace new, do you come home with a souvenir? Maybe a t-shirt? If a friend or family member goes on vacation, do they bring you a hoodie with the name of where they visited printed across the front?

125 years ago, souvenir t-shirts, hoodies, and keychains didn’t exist. Instead, if a person wanted a memento of a place they visited, they would buy a porcelain dish called souvenir china. Merchants in every town, even the smallest towns, sold them and each piece had a picture of something in that town. A scene or building was printed on all types of dishes: teacups and saucers, trivets, plates, candy dishes, vases, and even little porcelain boots and shoes. This photo shows two pieces of souvenir china picturing Main Street in Norway. The small dish on the left shows the original wooden opera house and the vase on the right pictures the current opera house and town clock. Maybe there are examples of souvenir china in your grandparents’ attic, but I think I’d rather have a t-shirt.

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