printer-friendly
interior
Fun and funky Thresher stuff
Contributing to the 2011 Fall Festival theme - "Fun and Funky 41st" - was a display of "Fun & Funky Thresher Stuff," unusual items of Bethel memorabilia loaned by alumni collectors.
One of those collectors, who requested anonymity, allowed Context to photograph part of the collection.
The Bethel graduate has had a collecting hobby since childhood and started including Bethel memorabilia "sometime in the '70s." Common sources are flea markets, garage and yard sales, auctions and estate sales in Harvey County and nearby counties.
"You have to be willing to be an opportunist," the collector says, "and buy stuff when you see it."
Probably the oldest and rarest items in this Bethel collection are the buttons pictured above. Rachel Pannabecker '80, director of Kauffman Museum, estimates they are ca. 1890s and doesn't know of anyone else who possesses these items.
The lapel pin (pictured above) is also rare, though not as nearly as old. "Nobody knows where they originated or what they were made for," says the collector. "[Another collector] saw one on e-Bay and thought it was a fake but ended up buying it. Then this one turned up locally."
The pewter lapel pin (above) was made in 1987 in honor of Bethel College's centennial. There was also a stick pin version for women who preferred that. John Sheriff liked the design so well that during his first term as interim president (2005-06), he had more of the lapel pins made.
Among the collector's most recent finds is a brochure that shows the front of Memorial Hall with a fountain where Centennial Plaza now is - an item (and a campus photo) that Bethel resident historians don't recall having seen before.
Any reader with information about the provenance of the brochure or any other items pictured in this spread, is invited to e-mail context@bethelks.edu.