Souvenir porcelain sets such as these have been used for years to celebrate historic sites. To this day the Museum Shop at The House of the Seven Gables sells porcelain decorated as it was in the days of our founder, Caroline Emmerton.
However, the Gables was not the only organization making plates featuring Hawthorne’s famous setting. In fact, many of the plates in our collection predate the restoration of the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion. Some of these plates were created by special order, such as those made for Salem photographer Frank Cousins. Others were likely sold in shops around Salem to interested tourists.