David Bell: collector of yesteryear
Solomon Palmer, Staff Writer and Seth Hillard, Staff Photographer
Feature photo courtesy of North Greenville University
Instead of resorting to books for a bridge to the past, David Bell opts to hold history in his hands. Bell has been a history teacher at North Greenville University since 2019, bringing his 25 years of high school history teaching, and extensive collection, to Tigerville.
In addition to learning about history, Bell has a knack for acquiring the very items we see in textbooks, turning his White Hall office into a micro history museum. Strewn about his office are artifacts that would make the Smithsonian Institution blush, many of which acquired by the living changers of history in his family.
Bell first fell in love with history through his grandmother, who kept the family’s own history alive for generations with photo albums. However, pictures of yesteryear were far from his only window into the past.
Bell’s father, following Japan’s surrender in 1945, took the mugshots of Sugamo Prison’s inmates. This task led to Bell’s father to rub elbows with Japan’s top war criminals, even personally meeting Hideki Tojo. Through this connection to history, Bell was bequeathed a Japanese flag signed by the biggest and baddest of Sugamo Prison. Among the signatures was Tojo of course, and Toguri D’Aquino.
D’Aquino was an American citizen visiting Japan at the time WWII began. Her fluent English made her a valuable asset to Japanese authorities, who forced her to become the South Pacific’s top propaganda personality and demoralize allied troops over the airwaves, who nicknamed her Tokyo Rose. The signed Sugamo Prison flag hung in Bell’s bedroom, along with a Japanese Officer’s sword.
A mugshot of Tokyo Rose in Bell’s office
The most significant recent addition to his collection, surprisingly, was mailed to him by a student. An ex-NGU student who joined the 101st airborne school got his hands on an Afghanistan flag on the first night jump to capture Osama Bin Laden. Similar to the Japanese flag, it was signed by everyone in the ex-student’s unit. Hung on the office wall, it reminds Bell of the impact he had on his students, and that history is constantly in the making.
Flags are far from the only items in Bell’s collection, however. Mannequin torsos sport the various uniforms of past soldiers. Leaning against his desk are original magazines published on the monumental days of world history, such as the Pearl Harbor attacks, the surrender of Italy and the Nazi Invasion of Poland. He keeps them in protective sleeves backed with cardboard to preserve the magazines.
The last formal declaration of war of the United States, preserved in a a clean plastic sleeve
His favorite item from, however, is a cloth patch worn by his father during his time working at Sugamo Prison, a post WWII penitentiary for Japanese war criminals.
“They’re easily worth $2,500 to $3,000 dollars,” Bell mentions about his invaluable badge. “The patches were not the most regulated, and come with different wording depending on the soldier’s request, so there is a lot of diversity among them.”
Bell also warns that these Sugamo Prison patches are among the most replicated service patches, and his sharp eye for antiques has protected him from many scammers. “They commission the patches in bulk and sell them at flea markets. [Flea markets] are some of the least reliable places to source antiques.”
To avoid the rampant replicas at flea markets, Bell sources his antiques through yard sales, junk shops and eBay. He can also rely on the steady calls he receives from individuals looking to sell off their antiques to a true collector.
However, the past does not give up its relics so easily. The prices follow the age of antiques in a steady incline that grows steeper each year.
“The older wars are getting more and more expensive. I would love to collect items from the Revolutionary War and the Spanish-American War, but it’s just too expensive,” Bell said as he reflected on the driving price for past eras.
“Vietnam and Korea, even though they’re more recent, are socially difficult to collect. The United States did not formally declare war, and was not supposed to be involved. As a result, some of the stigma the soldiers received gets directed at collectors as well.”
Despite the relatively recent occurrence of these wars, the political climate takes the place of age as a barrier to collect the pieces exclusive to that time period.
While most of Bell’s collection saw overseas action, a chunk of Bell’s collection is surprisingly local. One of the uniforms in his office bears a metal pin reading “S.C.” for South Carolina. The thick brown jacket belonged to a member of South Carolina’s state militia in WWI. To maintain a strong homeland defense, individual states would employ able-bodied men as soldiers of the governor, rather than federal authority.
A WWI jacket of the South Carolina State Militia
“Just three miles up the road from NGU, they would practice firing artillery right into the side of Glassy Mountain.” Bell takes a picture from his desk depicting the foot of Glassy refurbished into a firing range.
A group of soldiers practice their aim at Camp Wadsworth, at the foot of Glassy Mountain
History can never fully be captured in a book page. No page can show the wear of past hands or the sturdy feel of antiquated craftsmanship. Each piece of Bell’s collection has seen a book’s worth of action in its own right, and was once a treasured item of someone we will never meet.
“You don’t truly acknowledge that something happened until you hold something from it in your hands. That’s what makes history tangible and real. The antiques tell the stories of people…You’ll never know how many people’s lives it was a part of.”
Bell’s wide collection not only illustrates the past for his students, but keeps the past itself alive. In garages, basements and antique stores are countless relics gathering dust, and waiting to be discovered by anyone with an eye for antiquity, if Bell doesn’t beat you to it first.
