I am looking for 1930's souvenirs for a shadow box. Anyone have any ideas??

Question

what can I put in the display to fancy it up. I have a newspaper centered along with photographs surrounding the paper.

Suggestions: buttons, postcards and such??

no, I mean can anyone give me ideas on what to add?????

Answer 1

What about different postcards from the era? There are plenty of them on ebay, or you can even find books of postcards from the year on Amazon. I might also look for some old buttons, perhaps some lace or something like that. Maybe some old fabric that would be cool and give it some texture. You might also want to find a President Roosevelt Pin he was very big at the time and anyone born during that time period would remember the election.
What about old stamps? Again you can find these on ebay. Stamps from the time period would be cool and they would remember them. If you can find a rations book my mom still remembers those. Again check ebay.
Life Magazine started in 1936 it might cool to include some pictures or articles from it.
If you could find a small radio like something used for scrap booking that would be neat, that is what everyone did for entertainment listen to the radio. Also Monopoly started back then I have seen stickers and embellishments at the scrapbook store that would be neat get like the board and a get out of jail free card. Check ebay and the internet for scrapbook embellishments. You can find them and they are like $4.00.
Baseball! Baseball was still an American past time during the 30's find some old looking baseball cards, bats, gloves. Again you can use scrapbook embellishments they will work. Yes you can find "old" baseball stuff they have some at my scrapbook store.
An airplane of some sorts would be good, the US was advancing in airplane technology, there was Erheart and Landenberg maybe you could find something about them and include it in your box.
Don't forget the dust bowl was during this time maybe you could find something to represent that.
Route 66 was big and was being built Americans followed it during the Dust Bowl to CA to find a better life maybe a 66 shield or something like that would work for you.
The original War of the Worlds was broadcasted in the late 30's maybe you could find something about the radio show; everyone remembers the panic that caused. Still a great broadcast to listen to!
Well I hope this helps you, sometimes you just have to look "outside" the box for objects. I totally recommend checking out your local scrapbook store or online I scrapbook and can find tons of things for each decade! Good luck I wish I could see the final project!

Answer 2

William is correct, if you search for exactly what you typed, the actual souvenirs will be there for you.

Things that were new then were the Empire State Building; Air Mail; RCA Victor recordings; The World's fastest steam locomotive; Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz; anything Art Deco; swing music; radio programs of all sorts.

I don't know how big your shadow box is, so maybe you can find art deco stuff that is the right size.
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Answer 3

Very easy. Just go to Ebay and type in a search fore exactly what you're looking for, i.e. "1930's buttons, postcards, etc." You'll be amazed at what you find from all over the world.

Answer 4

Coins. Photos of people from that era.