ABSTRACT
The impulse to souvenir, together with the history of souvenirs, stretches back at least as far as recorded history and, most likely, beyond that. Far from being insignificant kitsch items, produced simply to make a profit, souvenirs are complex objects and artefacts. They harbour an array of features and, above all, have the capacity to accept a densely woven narrative, propelled by the impulse to record experience, most often the experience of travel and ‘Otherness’ or the unrepeatable.
