A Vintage Bicentennial Collection Finds New Audiences
Story and photos by Rodger Nichols
1976 was a year of transition and triumph. The Viking 1 spacecraft landed on Mars and transmitted the first up-close color photographs of the Martian surface. Barbara Walters made broadcast history as the first female nightly network news anchor. Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci made history in the Montreal Summer Olympics by scoring the first-ever perfect 10 on the uneven bars.
The national mood was a mix of eager optimism and patriotic nostalgia. After years of deep cynicism from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, Americans embraced the massive, nationwide bicentennial celebration as a collective tonic to heal the country’s bruised morale.
The celebration also generated 1 of the greatest uses of branding in history. Many things sold in the country were slapped with a bicentennial label, whether they had any historical connections or not.
Among the many people inspired by the anniversary was Charlene Lovell, mother of longtime Wasco County resident Tedd Lovell. She had already collected various items before the year began.
“I think it came about by opportunity,” Tedd says. “Her grandmother gave her some child’s tea sets of fine porcelain, and she had a few of those. She liked bells, old keys and cast-iron trivets. She must have had 40 of them hanging on the walls.”
Charlene was abetted in the process by her husband, Burrell. According to Tedd, his father couldn’t pass a yard sale without stopping to check it out.
Burrell was a thoughtful practitioner of repurposing items. While attending Oregon State University on the G.I. Bill following World War II, he joined others in dismantling buildings at the no-longerneeded Camp Adair to build housing for themselves.
But it was with the bicentennial that Charlene hit her stride. She was determined to collect as many bicentennial-marked items as possible, and she succeeded wildly. Her imagination took her far beyond the standard souvenirs of flags, mugs, plates, keychains, spoons, and ashtrays.
Charlene and Burrell traveled widely, giving her great opportunities—and she took most of them. Unlike hoarders, who are largely concerned with stockpiling, Charlene believed in displaying her collection thoughtfully.
“She didn’t put her collections away,” says Tedd’s wife, Rymmel. “She let them be out for other people to see. They were part of the decor of her house all the time, and she could enjoy them then. Why would you buy it and hide it away?”
But Charlene wasn’t just an impulse shopper. She also hatched a clever plan. Early in 1976, she wrote to every 1 of the 50 United States governors, asking for an autograph and the state’s seal on official state stationery.
Perhaps it was the simplicity of the request and the tenor of the times, but she received 48 responses. Some governors also sent photos and other memorabilia.
Charlene compiled the results in a notebook. With the American semiquincentennial looming this year, Rymmel set out to organize her mother-in-law’s massive bicentennial collection. She was the perfect person to do it, as curator of The Dalles School District Archive Museum.
“It taught me how to number, how to document, catalog, and put a collection together,” Rymmel says.
It took her 4 months to process the whole collection.
It helped that Charlene kept good records. “Mom liked a good bargain, and she had a little notebook with her that she would write down what she bought, what this price was, maybe where it came from,” Tedd says.
Charlene enjoyed tracking down things for others. “She had rubbings of people’s silverware sets who were looking for extra spoons, forks, etc., so she could find out there and buy for them.”
Many of Charlene’s items are on display at the 1850 Moody/Rorick House at 300 West 13th Street. A curated selection is at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum in The Dalles. Charlene died in 2014 at age 93. Her family says the thought of sharing representative items with the public would have pleased her greatly.
Tedd and Rymmel must decide what to do with the collection after the Discovery Center exhibit ends. “We would like to find somebody who wants it,” Tedd says.
“Somebody that would like to have it, store it, keep it going and share it,” Rymmel says. The couple would like to see the collection kept intact, in hopes it can be displayed at the nation’s tricentennial, just 50 years away.