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Discover Mid-America — August 2004

Collecting personalities

It's strange how people decide to collect something in particular. Lately, seems like there are more and more people collecting books, items or memorabilia of personalities.

Some years ago, a young woman came to our booth at an antique show and asked if we had anything with or about the presidents’ wives. That is what she collected. She would take anything, as she was finding it hard to find much more than picture plates and books. Since she was just a young woman, I was rather taken with the fact that she was collecting in such a unique area.

In the late 1980s, there was quite a run on Kennedy memorabilia. Both JFK and Jackie had such presence that the makers of bric-a-brac (otherwise known as sit-arounds) came out with anything from plates to bottles stoppers. Other famous personalities that have been big in the collectibles business have been Princess Di, the Beatles, popular U.S. Presidents and many more.

At one time, I decided to collect biographies of presidents. When I got to about twenty volumes, the collection no longer held interest for me, plus I had run out of shelf room. Then political buttons took my interest, with emphasis on also-rans. This was an accident as I had a dealer friend who was willing to sell a large group of pin-backs. Among those were some really unusual names of long-forgotten politicians. I loved putting a group of them on my lapel during election time. It was a great conversation starter... "Who is THAT?" I did not know, but it was really good icebreaker.

Today, with so many celebrities in so many areas, there is ample opportunity to collect items that may have a great future. What if someone had begun collecting items on Martha Stewart? Or Arthur Ashe (famous African-American tennis player)? Or Jonas Salk (polio vaccine)? There are many really great people whose fame is brief yet what they did is preserved in history. This could be a legacy left to one's children or grand children. Not only the historical aspect worth remembering, but also the good done by this person could be an inspiration to youth.

It would be quite easy to find NASCAR or Coca-Cola things today, as they are popular, and that would also make a great collection. But to enjoy “the hunt,” it would take more shopping and stopping at malls, and on the Internet to find these lesser-known personalities.

Take Bill Gates, for instance. Most information on him is either televised or in articles. I do not think that there is a whiskey flask done in his image. It could be that a company has asked and he has said NO. This man has certainly left his mark on the American public. Will young people even recognize his name forty years from now?

Civil War enthusiasts have a field day with the precious things they try to collect. Carte de Visites and daguerreotypes of uniformed men, amputees, armed military ... all these are very desirable to the Civil War collector. In fact, recently, in Springfield, MO, some pistols were stolen from the Battlefield Museum. It was not even a month before they were returned. Being documented and catalogued, these would have to be kept hidden by a collector, so they were returned, anonymously, of course.

If you are looking for something to collect, whether it be antique or not, there is an enormous field to choose from. Some personalities are easily found, others more difficult. It depends on how much time and money one would want to spend on the hunt and acquisition.

This could be fun thing for a family to do when visiting a flea market or mall, a garage sale or anyplace — even a dumpster. Even the Road Show has shown real treasures that were rescued from going to the dump.

Good hunting!

Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families.

Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO.

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