Daily AncestorCommercial traveler
A commercial traveler was the census term for a traveling salesman who sold goods to merchants on behalf of a wholesaler or maker.
Commercial traveler was the formal way to describe what people called a drummer. Unlike a peddler, he did not sell to households but took orders from stores.
The 1900 enumerator instructions told census takers to separate a traveling salesman from a salesman in a store, to return him as a commercial traveler, and to add the kind of goods he sold.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1900 to 1920 census
Chas. Webb, 36, Commercial traveler, hardware
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Daily Ancestor. "Commercial traveler." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/commercial-traveler. Last checked 2026-10-01.