Visitor Center Gift Shop

Old World Holiday Ornament - Glass Peanut

This Peanut Holiday Ornament is 2 3/4 inches long. Mouth blown, hand painted, glass Christmas ornament from Merck Family's Old World Christmas. Peanuts symbolize mystery since their shells completely hide their contents. Called "treasures beneath the ground," nuts are also associated with wisdom because their contents are compact, sustaining, and enclosed within a single shell. Long ago peanuts were wrapped in gold or silver foil and used as Christmas tree ornaments.

$5.39 plus tax

Popcorn

Popcorn is the great American munchie, and it deserves the creative gourmet treatment to rescue it from the pre-packaged microwave chemistry experiments available at every grocery store. Popcorn offers up nearly 70 tantalizing recipes-both savory and sweet-to ensure that popcorn is never boring again. Try tart and piquant Lemon-Pepper Popcorn or Classic Barbecue, or even Gorgonzola and Green Onion for something completely different. On the sweet side, the offerings include Hawaiian Luau (featuring coconut and white chocolate), Popcorn S'mores, and Bananas Foster (the popcorn version). Patrick Evans-Hylton also shows how to use popcorn as an ingredient in main course dishes such as Popcorn Shrimp and Fish Fry with Seasoned Popcorn which use popped popcorn as a coating ingredient. And the Chesapeake Crab Cakes are stunningly delicious! By Patrick Evans-Hylton.

$16.75 each plus tax

Suffolk: a Celebration of History Book

"Suffolk: A Celebration of History" is a 224-page hardback publication featuring depicting Suffolk's history with hundreds of:

Engravings
Images
Maps
Photographs
Sketches

Authors Kermit Hobbs, a Suffolk businessman, and William Paquette, a Tidewater Community College history professor, begin with Nansemond Indian settlements and end 400 years later with modern-day Suffolk and its mix of high-technology industries, residential growth and agriculture.

In between, Hobbs and Paquette sketch the city's role in slavery, the American Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, two world wars, the mighty peanut, the Great Dismal Swamp, and fires that relentlessly scorched downtown Suffolk.

The book is an updated version of Hobbs' and Paquette's first effort, "Suffolk: A Pictorial History," published in 1987. New photos and 16 pages of text have been added.

(Description in part by Aaron Applegate, The Virginian Pilot)

$16.75 each plus tax

The River That Binds Us

The heritage of 3 historic villages in northern Suffolk are featured in a book, "The River Binds Us." The villages, Crittenden, Eclipse and Hobson, are tucked away along the shores of the James River and Chuckatuck Creek.They share a common bond, the close-knit culture of the watermen and their families who created a world of their own there in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That bond is captured in the book's oral histories and vintage and contemporary photos. The book was a community project, with a corps of village volunteers collecting the stories and photos from more than 100 residents. (Description by the Virginian Pilot)

$41.50 each plus tax

Suffolk and Nansemond County

Suffolk and Nansemond County are steeped in a rich heritage and form an extraordinary locality in southeastern Virginia. With a history dating to pre-colonial times, Nansemond County was formed from one of the original shires established by colonists. Many of the first settlers were attracted to the abundant rivers and woods that offered a grand supply of food and sport. They learned to farm the bountiful land and established the crop that would make them famous. The peanut became the cash crop for Suffolk, and it drew the railroads and businesses needed to sculpt the city into a commercial success. This photographic history pays tribute to a brief but important portion of the people and places that comprises what was once known as Nansemond County and is now the City of Suffolk. It provides a visual story of a community that has weathered three major fires as well as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and both World Wars. These images offer readers the chance to experience the ways in which generations of families have lived, worked, and played, and they portray many of the houses and establishments that have been transformed or are completely gone. Look back to the first Peanut Festival in 1941, see how schoolchildren dressed in the 1930s, and view Main Street when it was at its height of popularity. By Frances Watson Clark.

$20.85 each plus tax

Suffolk in Vintage Postcards

After 20 years as a trading center on the Nansemond River, the town of Suffolk was chartered in 1742. Originally dependent on naval stores and the river, it would be railroads and peanuts that eventually put Suffolk on the map. After Amedeo Obici brought Planters Nut and Chocolate Company to Suffolk in 1913, the town was soon recognized as the world's largest peanut market. It was also in the center of a large agricultural region with trains passing in and out of town each day. Postcards began to travel around the country with news and greetings from the bustling Suffolk. By the middle of the 20th century, Suffolk had seen many changes. Railroads gave way to highways, and grand old hotels were replaced with motels. Yet within these pages the old Suffolk endures, depicted in the views and paintings of a vivid collection of postcards.

$20.85 each plus tax