GREENFIELD — A child’s pencil box. A letter from her teacher. A cut-out colored-in drawing of an elephant. All relics from a short life long remembered, all found in a wooden box nearly 60 years after the death of Beulah Driffill and now part of the exhibit — A Box for Beulah — on display now at the Hancock County Historical Society Museum.
The museum, in the basement of the Chapel in the Park at the corner of Main and Apple streets in Greenfield, is now open for the season.
In 1927, 6-year-old Beulah Driffill got sick at school. She grew sicker throughout the day, going straight to bed when she returned home. But by 11:40 p.m., Beulah was dead from diphtheria, a highly contagious disease that causes difficulty in breathing and often death — especially for children. In an effort to process his grief, Beulah’s father, Frank, put many of her belongings — a dress and coat, some crayons, her hair ribbons and some school books — in a wooden box, nailing it shut.
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Sixty years later, Vivian Driffill Kemper, a sister to Beulah, found the box and opened it. Hoping to keep memories from the past alive, Kemper donated the box to the Hancock County Historical Society. Now, almost a century after her passing, Beulah’s keepsakes are on display for the public.
Periodic rotating exhibits is just one of the changes Michael Kester, Hancock County Historical Society’s Greenfield director, hopes will bring more visitors to the museum.
Not everything needs to be displayed all the time, he explained.
“A little tells a bigger story,” he said. “When people have too much to look at, they get confused and walk on to the next display case.”
The next exhibit, Kester said, will be about the old Columbia Hotel in Greenfield. Built in 1895, the swanky Columbia Hotel featured a grand dining room with a three-foot wide art deco design that ran around the perimeter of the room at ceiling level. Kester has partnered with Greenfield-Central High School art teacher Lisa Sears to have her students recreate 14 feet of the hand-stenciled décor. The building, which was on Main Street, was torn down as a safety hazard in 1964.
In addition to rotating artifact experiences, Kester is working to upgrade protection and preservation procedures. He works tirelessly at his self-appointed task to preserve and protect the artifacts — even the building itself.
“When you walk in the door,” he said, “this building is an artifact. We treat it as such.”
Historical Society president Rebecca Crowe commends Kester’s efforts to help museum curator Jim Arthur with the cataloging and care of the building.
“He’s a go-getter,” Crowe said. “He has the time. We think it’s great that he’s doing it. It’s such a huge, insurmountable project.”
As the majority of the museum’s exhibits are in the basement, it’s no surprise that mold and mustiness were a problem. When the facility closed for the season in October, Kester and his crew of volunteers set about to remedy the situation — repainting the walls, removing items from cardboard boxes and putting things in clear plastic totes. Dyes from the colored totes leach into paper documents and cloth, Kester said.
Kester had high praise for his fellow Historical Society officers and board members. Past president Brigette Cook Jones has helped promote events for the group; board member Darlene Apple volunteered her time to repaint the museum walls.
Kester is especially proud of the new LED lighting installed in the exhibit areas.
“Incandescent and florescent (lights) are the enemies of artifacts,” he said.
He learned about lumens — units used for measuring the brightness of light — and how to restore, protect and conserve paper documents through attending workshops given by the Indiana Historical Society.
Kester is in his third year as an officer for the Hancock County Historical Society. Retired after 26 years as a computer programmer and trainer at AT&T, Kester spends his time cleaning, organizing and creating new labels to replace the handwritten ones for the museum’s many artifacts.
“We want to do the right thing,” he said. “We are the caretakers of the artifacts. These buildings are not our buildings, but we treat them like our house.”
“We’re trying to do better,” he added. “We’re not the IMA (Indiana Museum of Art), but we want to use proper museum practices to keep the museum artifacts safe and around for future generations.”
Kester doesn’t have a favorite artifact in the collection, but he offers this: “Every time I find a story about one, then it’s my new favorite. If I can’t find the story behind it,” he said, “then I’m upset.”
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The Hancock County Historical Society is open for the season. Hours for the Old Log Jail and the Chapel in the Park museums will be noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The buildings are at the corner of Apple and Main Street. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children. More information is available by visiting hancockhistory.org.
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