[Small Group of Material Documenting the 1953 Seymour Rodeo & Reunion, Plus an Earlier Baylor County Fair and Rodeo]

[Seymour, Tx, 1953. Good.. Two souvenir programs, brochure, admission ticket, and participant's number placard. Noticeable foxing, moderate edge wear, some offsetting to cover and in brochure, placard worn and partially torn. An interesting group of four items related to the 1953 Seymour Rodeo & Reunion held in Seymour, Texas from June 18-20, 1953, and one earlier item from a related event in the town. Seymour, Texas is a tiny rural town of about 3,000 residents located in Baylor County, about 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The Seymour Rodeo is one of the longest-running rodeos in Texas, begun in 1896; the rodeo just celebrated its 129th anniversary event in July 2025, and is now known as the Old Settlers Reunion and Rodeo. The five items present here are detailed as follows. As far as we can tell, the printed items are unrecorded:

1) Souvenir Program. The 57th Annual Seymour Rodeo & Reunion [wrapper title]. [Seymour, Tx.: 1953]. 16pp. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Moderate foxing, some creasing to wrappers, small portion of one leaf missing. An informative program for the 1953 rodeo, listing the committees responsible for the event, portrait photographs of some of the notable town leaders, and a biographical passage and portrait of the "Hostess Sponsor of the 1953 Seymour Rodeo and Reunion," Miss Betty Lynn Stout. The remainder of the program is comprised of local advertisements from a variety of businesses, including Humble Oil, the Rock Inn Cafe, the Baylor County Banner newspaper, and others.

2) [Leaflet Listing the 1953 Rodeo Contestants]. [Seymour: 1953]. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet. Some adhesive remnants and staining to front cover. Lists the events and officials on the front cover, the 203 rodeo participants on the inside spread, and some advertisements on the back cover.

3) [Admission Ticket for 1953 Rodeo]. [Seymour: 1953]. Yellow cardstock, printed in red and black, 2 x 5.5 inches. Minor edge and surface wear, some adhesive remnants on verso. A ticket for the June 19, 1953 performance of the Seymour Rodeo & Reunion at Fair Park Stadium in Seymour.

4) [Participant's Rodeo Number Placard]. Vinyl backed on linen, printed in black, 7 x 8 inches. Substantial wear and chipping, some paper remnants adhered to recto. Well-used, but that stands to reason. A numbr placard reading, "367" in large block numbers, evidently worn by one of the participants in the 1953 rodeo.

5) Eighth Annual Baylor County Fair and Rodeo [wrapper title]. [Seymour, Tx.: 1927]. [80]pp. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Substantial foxing and dust-soiling to wrappers. Minor foxing within. An early program for another rodeo and agricultural fair in Seymour which began in 1919, and was known as the Baylor County Fair and Rodeo. The program includes a foreword about the fair, a two-page county history, a short directory of some important local businesses and civic and social organizations, rules regarding exhibits at the fair, detailed listings of prizes available per agricultural product, a special section on the "Women's Department" of the fair, and more. The program is also valuable for containing legions of advertisments for local businesses that were operating in such a small Texas town a hundred years ago.