Serious shoppers routinely patrol stores with a mission in mind-a dress for the wedding, a painting for the wall. But sometimes they combine the pleasures of the hunt with an even loftier goal: supporting their favorite museum by purchasing items at the gift shop.

Museums everywhere have learned that patrons eagerly spend their dollars on goods connected with what they've just learned and absorbed in the exhibitions. In Tucson, kids want a stuffed animal at Reid Park Zoo or a rocket at the planetarium. Their elders go for biographical books of frontier heroes at the Arizona Historical Society and polychrome Indian pots at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Here's a rundown of some of the Old Pueblo's most charming museum shops.

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