By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
You might call him a cross between “American Pickers” antiques hunter Mike Wolfe and Hollywood’s most famous fictional archeologist, Indiana Jones.
Greg Van Antwerp is a self-described “Urban Archeologist.”
So what exactly is Urban Archeology? According to Van Antwerp, it’s looking past the obvious stuff at tag and estate sales to discover the lost, the forgotten, the buried item, and in many cases, helping that item find its way home.
It’s more about the discovery and the history of a find, and less about its value.
You could say his currency, his stock in trade, is the story.
Where Indiana Jones’ most famous movie motto went something like “That belongs in a museum,” Van Antwerp’s might be “That belongs to the original owner.”
A lifelong “picker”
The 54-year old Van Antwerp said growing up he was “of the generation that was lucky enough to walk to school,” and that he was the kind who “could not go past a junk pile without looking.”
He came by the instinct honestly, Both his parents, he said, would take him along to tag sales or “just stop out of curiosity” at estate sales and other venues.
“My mother taught me to parallel park at a tag sale, when I was learning to drive,” Van Antwerp remembered. And though no one in his family was what he would call a hard-core tag sailer, “as a 16-year old I remember picking up beer paraphernalia and signs that light up” during those weekend forays, “and it turned into picking up old beer cans” – his first collection.
That desire to learn the story of something, and return it to the owner, well that he thinks goes back to his first real tag sale purchase.
“My father took me to a tag sale [when I was young] and I saw something no kid should ever buy – an M1 bayonet – and I said to my father, ‘can I buy this?’ and he said ‘yes’,” Van Antwerp remembered. “It was like $3; and I don’t know if it was wise of him to let me.”
Van Antwerp said he treasured the bayonet, but his brother appropriated it, and subsequently sold it. He’s been looking for that bayonet ever since.
Van Antwerp said he “thinks that maybe the search for his ‘bayonet’ reveals the deeper meaning of Urban Archeology.” He knows what it means to long for a lost item and maybe in the course of his own journey he can “ease the pain of others.”
His “picking” philosophy
Not surprisingly, Van Antwerp’s approach to tag and estate sales isn’t necessarily like others who share his hobby.
“While others go to four tag sales in a day, I’ll go to one home and stay two hours.” He said. “I weed through and look and look and look again if I’m allowed to. I look in places that others won’t,” he said, adding that it’s not uncommon for him to get permission from sellers to search closets or look behind the drawers in desks and dressers. “I’ve convinced myself I can find things in any house.”
The key to his success, Van Antwerp said, is his approach.
“When I walk into a sale I try to build rapport,” he said. “It’s always much better to get to know the people who run the sale.
“The first thing I say to them is: ‘I’m not an e-bayer, I’m not a reseller, I’m just looking for a good story,” he said. “It frees up their minds … things that weren’t available become available.”
The other aspect of his technique that Van Antwerp said makes his “Urban Archeology” so different from traditional tag sailing is the level of service he can offer the sellers.
“When I go to a sale, I almost end up working for them,” he said. “Often [the sellers] are overwhelmed and have not found everything in the home. I can bring them something and say, ‘do you want to sell this?’”
For example, Van Antwerp told Prime about a find he made while at an estate sale last summer.
“Up in the rafters [of a closet] I found a box of jewelry and returned it to the estate sale agent, who returned it to the owner,” he said.
And when it comes to his own urge to collect something he’s discovered, Van Antwerp said he has a rule.
“Something has to go out before something can come in. I’m not a hoarder, I’m able to corral my things,” he said, noting that he’s much more likely to collect ephemera – antique letters, newspaper clipping, photos and such – than tangible items. “When you collect paper, you can collect so much more.”
Sharing his enthusiasm
In 2009, Van Antwerp decided it was time to learn how social media worked. As an experiment he launched a blog, which he called “The Urban Archeologist.”
To his surprise, people started following the posts about his weekly tag sale adventures and the interesting items he’d found.
The blog led to an invitation for the Brookfield, CT. native to write about his adventures for the hyperlocal online news service Patch. It was there that the first group found him.
“In 2013, a men’s group from New Canaan, Connecticut, saw an article on Patch and contacted me,” he said.
The group wanted him to come down and give a talk about his Urban Archeology – and his finds – to a retired men’s group.
“That launched the most interesting, unintentional aspect of Urban Archeology,” Van Antwerp said. “I should have kept a journal, I’ve got to be near 50 of these talks now; I’ll do one for any group or organization that will have me.”
In March his Urban Archeology talk brought him to both Heritage Hall and the Agawam Public Library, his first foray into Massachusetts.
He’s got great stories
Van Antwerp said one of the best parts of his newly-developed career as a guest speaker is the chance to share some of his favorite Urban Archeology “finds” with a live audience.
One of those stories involves “10 to 15 boxes ” of old home movies from the 1930 he found at the close of an estate sale in Connecticut.
“I bought them all,” Van Antwerp said. “One was of a dinner party and listed the people who were there – the Steins and the Guggenheims and I thought, ‘how many Guggenheims can there be?’” Van Antwerp said.
In another box he found a reel showing a kids’ birthday party with the names Agnes, Kippy and Stephen written on the label.
“Someone had written ‘Sondheim’ over it,” Van Antwerp recalled. “I was almost positive I had [an old movie] of Stephen Sondheim as a toddler running around someone’s Park Avenue apartment.”
Van Antwerp called the Tony award-winning composer and lyricists’ agent, explaining he believe he had discovered some old family movies he thought Sondheim might want. Van Antwerp then transferred the movies to a DVD and, as Sondheim has a home not far from his, took a chance and knocked on Sondheim’s door.
“For all the people who might show up on his doorstep unannounced, he was very gracious,” Van Antwerp said, adding he then sat on Sondheim’s couch and watched his old home movies with the composer.
Van Antwerp now often finishes his talks with clips from the movies, and a photo of Sondheim accepting the DVD from him.
He shared a similar story with Prime about another instance of returning family history to the rightful owners. This one involved some old letters and newspaper clippings he found at another estate sale.
“It was military correspondence and newspaper clippings and I bought them all,” Van Antwerp said. As he began going though the pieces, he discovered it told the story of two brothers who had gone off to war during World War II.
“One comes back, the other is lost in North Africa and they can’t find the body,” Van Antwerp recounted from one of the newspaper clippings. He said another clipping indicated the family was awarded a Purple Heart for their lost son. A final clipping read that the body was finally returned to the family, nine years after the end of the war.
He said he felt compelled to hold on to the letters and clippings, but felt odd about telling the story because it was “too personal.
“I hung on to [the material] until I ran into a friend who is also a historian,” Van Antwerp said. “I said, ‘I have the great story of two brothers during World War II’,” and gave the historian the family name of Krizan.
“I go to church with a couple of Krizans,” was the man’s reply.
A week later he got back to Van Antwerp with the news that one of the brothers from that family – there had been 13 children – was still alive.
“I put the information into a binder with page protectors, and went over to their house,” Van Antwerp said. “They were awestruck … they had never seen [the letters].
“As I walked out of the house I told my friend, ‘now I can tell the story’,” he said.
And the hunt continues
Today he’s in search of another connection, and shares his mystery with all who attend his Urban Archeology talks. It involves the image on a glass negative he found wrapped in a sock at an estate sale.
“It’s a stately elder couple – it looks like American gothic – standing outside a clapboard house,” Van Antwerp said, adding when he found the negative he “thought it was a piece of glass, until I held it up to the light.”
He searched the Internet for information on how to develop a print from that glass slide, and now shows the print at his talks.
“I hope someday someone will say, ‘I know who this is’,” he said.
Looking back at his lifelong passion for picking – and learning the story behind what he’s found – Van Antwerp said he realizes now his weekend hobby is really a kind of calling.
“People like me, we’re sort-of travelling curators of American history, culture, and just memorabilia,” he said.
To learn more about Van Antwerp and his Urban Archeology, visit www.urbanarcheologist.net
