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This original 1958 front-strike matchcover promoted the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson for September 13–18, 1958, inviting visitors to “Make a Fair Date in ’58.” Its colorful red-and-blue artwork captures an entire week of mid-century fairgoing in miniature: a smiling 4-H pig, nightly revue entertainment, auto racing, Funland, rides, shows and exhibits, with the interior advertising Royal American Shows & Rides on the Midway.
By 1958, Hutchinson had long been established as the permanent home of Kansas\'s official state fair, and the combination pictured here was central to what these gatherings had become. Livestock and 4-H competition carried forward the fair\'s agricultural and educational purpose, while night shows, automobile racing and enormous traveling midways transformed fair week into statewide entertainment. Royal American Shows was one of the country\'s major carnival operators, and the Library of Congress preserves earlier advertising in which the company promoted its operation as the “World\'s Largest Midway.” This little cover therefore preserves more than the date of a fair — it offers a glimpse of the moment when agriculture, youth programs, motorsports and traveling amusement culture all met on the same Hutchinson fairgrounds.
The “Auto Races” advertising is particularly evocative for this particular year. Contemporary reporting shows that heavy rain disrupted the 1958 fair and canceled scheduled racing, while records from the final day, September 18, document a rearranged program combining IMCA sprint cars with late-model stock cars on the fairgrounds\' half-mile track. The exact dates printed on this matchcover connect it directly to that rainy September week in Hutchinson.
The Details
Advertiser/Business: Kansas State Fair
Advertiser/Business City: Hutchinson
Advertiser/Business State: Kansas
Slogan: “Make a Fair Date in ’58”
Featured Service/Subject: 1958 Kansas State Fair
Featured Imagery: Clown, 4-H pig, balloons and fair advertising graphics
Date: September 13–18, 1958
Featured Attraction: Royal American Shows & Rides
Match Manufacturer: Universal Match Corp.
Match Manufacturer Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Carefully packed and shipped by Strange Trading Co.
