Jami Frazier Tracy says it was a love of thrifting that steered her into a career in museums. The teenage years she spent combing the racks at the Goodwill at 37th and Oliver nurtured a love for items of yesteryear.
“In thrift stores, you never know what you’re going to find,” Frazier Tracy said. “It’s like a treasure hunt every time you walk in.”
As an intern for the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum in the 1980s, she’d return to work with discoveries made during her off-hours thrifting trips and present them to her bosses for consideration for the museum collections.
Now the museum’s curator of collections, Frazier Tracy hopes that same passion will bring new guests to the museum’s latest special exhibit.
Through October, visitors to the museum can have their own moments of discovery in the Thrift Finds exhibit. Curated from nearly 50 years of thrifting by museum staff, the objects in the exhibit made their way from local Goodwill, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Junior League and church thrift shops and into the museum’s permanent collection.
Some items tell the story of a Wichita gone by — one where residents made shopping trips to Lewin’s Fashion Shop or chose from Henry’s, Innes or Thurstons department stores for their back-to- school outfits, work clothes or everyday wear.
Frazier Tracy said pieces like a brown Nehru jacket — a design inspired by traditional Indian garments and popularized by the Beatles — with a Henry’s Quad Shop label fits that bill.
Other items mark a specific moment in fashion history, like a red silk chiffon Halston dress from the late 20th century or a women’s kaftan with a Hawaiian print made out of Pizza Hut logos. Frazier Tracy said she was able to track the kaftan design to a specific international Pizza Hut conference in Hawaii in the late 1970s.
And still others hint at the people who loved, wore and passed these items on. A Shocker Lounge bowling shirt from the 1960s carries the embroidered name “Clifford Jones.” A blue and green enameled plate carries the artist signature of Mary Koch, from the late Koch matriarch’s days as a silversmith and enamel artist.
The arrival of these objects in a thrift shop erases some of the stories the museum might have told about their use. Frazier Tracy said the lack of provenance allows visitors to fill in the blank of some intriguing questions like “who wore this, what kind of person were they and where did they where” each item.
“Clearly [someone] loved it because they kept it in their closet, in some cases for 50 years,” Frazier Tracy said. “I feel like we’re giving those things a terrific new home and sharing them with an audience that will really appreciate them the way they did.”
If you go: The Thrift Finds exhibit is located on the second floor of the museum. Admission to the museum is $5 for adults and $2 for children Tuesday through Saturday. The building is free to access on Sundays.
Margaret Britton-Mehisch is an intern with the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. She can be reached at megbm@kmuw.org.
Jami Frazier Tracy says thrift shop items tell a story of their own. Photo by Margaret Britton-Mehisch
