Information Sheet

 

 

R         Southeast Missouri Drummers Association.

694                  Souvenir program, 1920.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

This is a souvenir program for the twenty-fourth annual convention of the Southeast Mis­souri Drummers Association, held at Sikeston in Scott County, Missouri, on 27-29 May 1920.  The illustrated program includes a schedule of events, photographs of officers and members of the association, and views of Sikeston.

 

The Southeast Missouri Drummers Association was a commercial organization of traveling salesmen, manufacturer’s agents, and businessmen who operated in southeastern Missouri.  The Association aimed to strengthen commercial relationships between large firms and local busi­nessmen.  Membership was dominated by representatives of businesses based in St. Louis, but there were also members from Cairo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, Milwaukee, and elsewhere.  The local membership in southeastern Missouri included businessmen from Sikeston, Bonne Terre, Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville, Charleston, Desloge, Farmington, Jackson, and Poplar Bluff.

 

The annual meetings of the Association were held in the principal towns of the region on a rotating basis.  The popular affairs drew hundreds of Association members, their families, and lo­cal participants.  The three-day meetings featured parades, speeches, dinners, dances, concerts, athletic events, and other entertainment.  The souvenir booklets produced for each annual event were heavily illustrated and filled with the advertisements of the principal businesses and mer­chants operating in the region.

 

The twenty-fourth meeting of the Association began in Sikeston on 27 May 1920.  Special features of the event included performances by Noel Poepping’s American Band from St. Louis, singing by Hazel Stubbs and Dr. George Tonelli of Sikeston, and “aeroplane” stunts by C. J. Faulkner and Leonard McMullin of Sikeston.  The “Dress parade,” a highlight of earlier events, was superceded at Sikeston by an automobile parade.  The “year book and souvenir program” for the 1920 meeting is illustrated with portraits of the members and officers of the Association.  There is a review of the 1919 meeting at Caruthersville, and an essay on “Sikeston, ‘The Queen City of Southeast Missouri,’” by the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.  The sketch includes views of the principal businesses, public buildings, and residences.

 

The program for the Association’s annual meeting in 1910, also held at Sikeston, has been cataloged as WHMC-Rolla collection R680.

 

 

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