Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a commercial traveller, a salesman.

1827		W. Scott to C.K.Sharpe, in C.K.S. Correspondence (1888) ii 398: [...] the Nos. of Lodge’s book [...] were left by some drummer of the trade upon speculation [...] [F&H].
1834		A. Greene Perils of Pearl Street 57: The price, however much the drummers may boast of their cheapness, is, for the most part, actually beyond their value.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. II 57: Some of our city merchant ‘drummers’.
1855		N.Y. Daily Times 4 Apr. 8/3: [headline] A Jew Drummer before Judge Pearcey.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 55: The crimps, the dry goods drummers, the water-side sharks.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: She was of respetable parents, while her lover is a ‘drummer’ dfor a dry-goods house.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 306: If the poor bankrupt is not set up again by his creditors, he is very apt to become a drummer, an agent of other houses of commerce, represented in England by the ‘touting bagsman,’ or the more ambitious ‘commercial gent.’.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 365: I soon transpired that they were drummers – one belonging in Cincinnati, the other in New Orleans.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 20/1: A few nights ago, one of our noble army of drummers strolled into a leading hotel in the ‘Whereat’ district, looking, after his day’s journey, something like a relic of the Old Red Sandstone period tied up in a dirty bed quilt.
1889		Kipling ‘A Little More Beef’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 18 Sept. (1909) 49: A young and promising Chicago drummer.
1891		C. Roberts Adrift in America 150: A man who was very flashily dressed, and had the appearance of being a ‘drummer’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Feb. 4/8: The noble army of preachers are the best trade ‘drummers’.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 65: DRUMMER: slang nicknames for commercial travellers [sic].
1900		T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 168: ‘I tell you,’ said another drummer to him, ‘it’s a great thing.’.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 July 4/7: Three hundredweight of corpulent commercial promptly flopped down on him to silence his struggles [...] The drummer is in Perth now, instructing lawyers to issue writs .
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 May 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That a well-known commercial traveller is a whale on other men's whisky. [...] That on all railway journeys his drummer pals are expected to supply the suction.
1914		M. Glass Potash And Perlmutter 230: The way drummers figure it out nowadays, Potash, there ain’t no more money in commissions. All the money is in the expense account.
1924		‘Digit’ Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 180: Usually the drummers ride long, weary miles alone for three parts of their working hours, consequently they are only too glad to pick up a companion.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 473: He just wasn’t a bull artist the way most drummers were.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 189: The drummers ought to start coming through pretty soon now that the roads are clear.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 50: He smoked a handsome English pipe that did not fit in with the drummer’s personality.
2001		C. Lee Eight Bells & Top Masts 34: They all wore suits or blazers [...] A crocodile of clerks and drummers .
1968		G. Legman Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 227: The drummer, or travelling salesman himself, it may be mentioned, has been so much maligned sexually.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 196: What troubled her most was that she had become a traveling salesman’s story. She knew it when the drummers began to call.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 79: Lachie the drummer rang [...] to say he had some comps for the Grand Ole Opry show.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 171: The undie drummer was lounging on the ice chest.

2. a shop tout.

1838

Blackburn Standard 16 May 4/1: ‘Drumming in New York’ [...] Scene — A bar room in the hotel. Wall Street. A straddling stranger comes in [...] He is instantly observed by a Drummer, who instantly makes up to him.