Early 20th century. The streets of cities and towns are a very loud place to be. The already high number of peddlers selling their wares, according to ottoman pre-industrial tradition, gets even higher with the recently arrived jobless refugees arriving the 1920s. Peddling or hawking acts as a primitive form of social welfare, important for the poorer classes and serving practical needs, which will be met in the coming decades by the development of stores and infrastructures.
Peddlers sell their wares with donkeys, water sellers supply water from their barrels, milkmen often go around with a small herd of goats, milking them on the spot and selling the fresh milk.
Hawkers carry goods or transport travelers on horses and mules, the main means of transport until at least 1930. Usually coming from the stratum of landless farmers, peddlers are organized in large unions in villages and towns. Ganotzides or kalanzides are itinerant craftsmen who maintain copper household utensils, by galvanizing and polishing them. They carry the necessary tools with them and do their work on the spot, while often their payment is in kind (eggs, corn, wheat).
Another wandering street vendor is the chair-maker. Chairs made of plane tree or other wild trees and various river bridges, such as Typha domingensis (fluffy, mat) and various mulberries (Juncus spp.) are sold wandering from town to town with their mule or from a fixed market stand.
In Evros area, basket weaving is a traditional art of the Gypsies, who continue the tradition of Byzantine basket making and sell their baskets all over the country. Made of reed and wicker, but also peeled willow, which combines flexibility and aesthetics, baskets play an important role in transporting and storing goods. More durable materials are used for agricultural work, such as hazelnut, skull and wild boar rods. The craftsmanship of the Thracian Gypsies has produced beautiful samples of basket weaving for home use but also for children's toys, or baskets imbued with spiritual properties, ie for healing, for the “evil eye”, etc.
In Kalymnos there is a long tradition of sponging. The spongers sell their valuable crop starting from Syros, Nafplio, Istanbul to reach Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Trieste, the Middle East.
Children or teenagers are often shoe polishers. With their wooden box with their brushes and tools, they are placed in strategic parts of the market and clean, varnish and polish the shoes of passers-by, which due to the dirt roads need frequent cleaning.
The town crier announces the news that arrive by telegram or the arrival of a shopkeeper. Delalis or telalis is a word probably of Turkish origin. Known for their strong, clear voice and often carrying a bell, they were well known and loved in the local communities.
Many of these peddlers are so popular with city audiences that songs are written about them, such as "Barba-Yannis " by tenor Petros Epitropakis. Beloved and popular in the Athenian society of the late 19th century, the seller of clay jugs Yannis has been immortalized in literature (Trelantonis of Penelope Delta) and in music with the funny song about his habit to dress as a lord every Sunday while the rest of the week going about in rugs.
Another popular profession is the “laterna” player. Becoming a laterna player requires special technical skills, knowledge, music ear and talent. Nowadays it is an endangered profession, as well as the salepi seller, the koulouri seller, the ice cream maker and many more. For some professions, progress has been translated into abolition, such as wandering "artists" who trained bears and monkeys to do circus tricks were rightly banned, following legislation prompted by the animal rights movement.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
