T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ Local mortician Marty Mitchell has amassed a collection of mortuary antiquity, in excess of 5,000 pieces, ranging from antique caskets and coffins, to hearses, embalming equipment and chemicals, antique funeral photographs, product samples, century old funeral product catalogs, mourning wreaths made from human hair and so much more.

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series profiling the various personal collections of residents of Marshalltown and the surrounding area.

Death may be a concept people find depressing or uncomfortable to face, but it’s a fate no mortal can escape. For local mortician Marty Mitchell, death is not only a natural part of life, but an essential component to his profession.

Mitchell, known for his gregarious personality and quickness to lend a helping hand, possesses a breadth of knowledge about the history of mortuary science, funerals, burial rites and mourning practices. He said ever since he was a kid he was destined to have a career as a funeral director. He gained experience employed at Estel-Perrin-Avey Funeral Home from 1987-2004, and opened Mitchell Family Funeral Home in 2005. Over the course of several decades, he has amassed a collection of over 5,000 mortuary artifacts, ranging from antique caskets and coffins, to hearses, embalming equipment and chemicals, antique funeral photographs, product samples, century-old funeral product catalogs, mourning wreaths made from human hair, and so much more. The oldest items in his collection, wrappings from a mummy and burial beads, date to 1,400 B.C., and were obtained during a trip to Egypt with his son.

The mortician also possesses rare presidential artifacts, such as a strand of President George Washington’s hair, plus a piece of wood from the president’s original casket. He also has a strand of President Abraham Lincoln’s hair, and a small piece from the flag which hung from Lincoln’s funeral train.

Mitchell acquired the first piece in his collection as a young teenager.

“I remember going to a garage sale on Harrison Drive in Marshalltown, and I found an old funeral card from 1905. It was a death notice card funeral homes would distribute to stores and businesses to let people know someone died,” Mitchell said.

He walked away with the card that day, free of charge.

Mitchell said he’s always been fascinated by the Victorian era (1837-1901) and its funeral practices, popularized by Queen Victoria’s public mourning of her husband, Prince Albert.

Mitchell collects anything and everything related to the funeral and burial process. What draws the collector to an item is its history, uniqueness or whether or not it has a special tie to Marshalltown or Iowa in general. Like the rarity of a Stradivarius violin, his 1847 Fisk coffin is one of only 14 to be found in the collecting world. Likewise, his glass casket from 1863 is one of about only a dozen left. He added a particular style of copper casket to his collection because it’s the same model in which President Franklin Roosevelt, John Wayne and Elvis Presley were buried. Mitchell also owns the same model mahogany casket used to inter President John F. Kennedy.

Mitchell pointed out that while people interchange the words “casket and coffin” they are actually two different products.

“A coffin has six sides, tapered at the head and foot and wide at the shoulders. Caskets are rectangular in shape and generally larger. Caskets are what we mainly use today,” he explained.

Mitchell’s collection of funeral product samples includes miniature representations of caskets and burial vaults salespeople showed customers in place of the actual, mammoth products.

The other large pieces in his collection are his hearses.

“I have a horse-drawn hearse from 1887 kept in storage, an Oldsmobile from 1941, a 1950 Pontiac and a 1963 Cadillac. We still use the cars for funerals,” he said.

One of the more unusual pieces in his collection was actually a rather popular, although pricey, tribute to the deceased commissioned during the Victorian era.

“I have two hair wreaths. They’re hard to find, but were common back then,” Mitchell said. “Hair would be taken and woven into designs, with the wreaths sometimes made by nuns in convents.”

The hair would be twisted and sewn around shaped wire forms, to create elaborate floral and leaf designs. Another personal type of funeral item Mitchell owns are casket plates.

“They were made from metal and had the person’s name, date of birth and death, and a saying,” he explained. “They were made by the town jeweler, and while most were meant to stay on the casket and be buried, sometimes families would keep them, or make a second one, as a memento.”

Mitchell comes upon his finds by shopping area auctions and on eBay. He said his working relationship with local auctioneers helps him know when antiques he would find of interest will go on sale.

An active collector, Mitchell is interested in finding artifacts from the funeral of President Herbert Hoover. He’d also like to locate bells that were attached to “safety coffins” in the 19th century. These bells could be rung by a person who was buried alive, and thus, needed to signal for help.

“It’s where we get the saying “saved by the bell,” Mitchell said.

Sharing his collection with the general public, and providing a forum for scientific and historic study, is a goal for this collector. Earlier this year, Mitchell purchased property adjoining his 1209 Iowa Ave West funeral home, which was the former location of Casey’s General Store.

“The Casey’s building will have a library and education area for classes and clubs to meet, and to hold historical presentations. I want to do displays that will portray our history [of mortuary science] in a respectful manner,” he said.

If you collect something interesting or unusual, contact this writer.