Lincoln’s 200th good for Tinsley Dry Goods
Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial year has been kind to the Tinsley Dry Goods gift shop, the upscale memorabilia store next to the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices State Historic Site.
The gift shop, which supports the Old State Capitol Foundation, has donated $18,000 in proceeds to the organization this year and is pulling in roughly 30 percent more business than its peak year of 2006.
“Business has been up because of the bicentennial,” said owner Dana Homann. Customers are coming in from all over the world, she said, dropping in between visits to the historic sites.
“There are little pins from the map going up all over the place,” Homann said, referring to a big map in the store that customers can push a pin into to record where they’re from.
The map shows that tourists from Tanzania, Vietnam, South Africa, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates have stopped by this year.
“The guy from Tanzania was impressed I counted to 10 in Swahili,” Homann said. “He bought a post card. He gave me a little Tanzanian 50-cent bill. I have it up on the wall map.”
Busts, postcards and T-shirts are among Homann’s most popular sellers. But anything Lincoln tends to go.
