Historian Frank Nickell's collection to be archived

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Frank Nickell doesn’t say “no” easily.

That’s obvious after a quick glance at one museum case, artfully and economically arranged ahead of a celebration of Nickell’s life’s work, planned for Feb. 9 at Heritage Hall, 102 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau.

Nickell is a historian in a 27-county area in Southeast Missouri, and is familiar to many audiences, said Mary Ann Kellerman, co-founder of the Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation and Heritage Hall.

Frank Nickell displays an image of downtown Cape Girardeau on Thursday at Heritage Hall in Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

Nickell hosts public radio affiliate KRCU’s “Almost Yesterday,” a series chronicling interesting moments or people in Cape Girardeau’s history.

He was a professor at Southeast Missouri State University for more than 25 years, teaching history, doing research, helping other researchers work on projects or manuscripts — and amassing a collection chock full of interesting tidbits, each with its own story.

That collection eventually will be converted to the Nickell Regional Archive, Kellerman said.

The glass-fronted case at Heritage Hall holds props from 1950s commercials shot at KFVS12, early photos of Cape Girardeau, artifacts from historical figures, and on and on — “He has such a broad interest,” Kellerman said of Nickell.

Artifacts from the collection of Frank Nickell are on display Thursday at Heritage Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

It’s not even a fraction of Nickell’s treasures, and as he’s in his 80s, the urgency to preserve the collection became apparent not too long ago, Kellerman said.

“He’s a treasure,” Kellerman said of Nickell, who has worked full-time at Heritage Hall since 2017. “We’re so happy to have him with the foundation.”

Kellerman knew Nickell from her time as a professor in the interior design program at Southeast, she said, and after he left his position as assistant director of the State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center in Cape Girardeau, she and her husband, Bert, invited Nickell to work at Heritage Hall.

Then Nickell mentioned his collection.

Nickell said he took Kellerman to a storage facility and showed her what was there: 14 four-drawer filing cabinets, all full, in two storage units.

Frank Nickell displays an image of a log cabin southeast of Advance, Missouri, on Thursday at Heritage Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

“And that doesn’t even count what I have at home,” Nickell said, laughing.

That amounts to another six four-drawer cabinets, he said, plus other miscellany.

They’re alphabetized by subject, people, places, events, Nickell said.

But there are hundreds of categories, Kellerman said.

“It’s daunting,” she said of the prospect of properly preserving his collection.

“We’re going to move the collection to our foundation within the next couple of months,” Kellerman said, and noted several volunteers have already been enlisted, but more would be welcome.

A reprint of an original drawing of the KFVS12 building from the collection of Frank Nickell is on display Thursday at Heritage Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

The collection will eventually be digitized, Kellerman said, but she sees that as a long-term proposition.

Coming sooner is a project to create 12 videos, each on a different topic, most related to Nickell’s collection, but some on other topics, including the Klostermann building, which once housed Mollie’s restaurant and how houses Ebb and Flow Fermentations at 11 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, Kellerman said.

The Kellermans restored that building years ago, she said.

Nickell said that through the years, students of his have worked on projects with him, documenting with oral interviews veterans’ experiences in wars, for example, or building up information about Missouri’s courthouses.

Artifacts from the collection of Frank Nickell are on display Thursday at Heritage Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

That display is on now at Heritage Hall.

“He’s in all the time with people, sometimes three or four people a day who come in, working on manuscripts, telling him their stories,” Kellerman said.

The celebration Feb. 9 will include a couple of speakers, Nickell said, and will be a retrospective of his career.

A wooden model of the Wicecarver Supply Store in Marble Hill, Missouri, from the collection of Frank Nickell is on display Thursday at Heritage Hall in downtown Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

Although Nickell doesn’t like to talk about himself, he said, he sees this event and the effort behind it as an opportunity to save his files and incorporate them into the Kellerman Foundation.

And, Nickell said, despite all best efforts, “You can’t preserve everything.”

Nickell said his collection probably has redundancy compared with other collections, such as the archives at the Southeast Missourian, but it will take volunteers to sort through it with an eye to keeping what’s important.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630