“They believed him to be a wax figure for fifty years until a new curator found the truth that rocked a town.”
The first thing that caught Clara Whitman’s attention was the fragrance, which was subtle but off, like old varnish combined with an unidentified substance.
Clara had just been appointed curator of the Pine Bluff Historical Museum, a small-town institution in rural Missouri, when it came from the back room.
There was a sense of slowness throughout the museum, where each exhibit bore a ghost of the past, the floors moaned with untold stories.
With a clipboard in hand, she perused the exhibits on that June morning in 2025 as sunlight seeped through dusty windows.
She was getting ready for a makeover, which would include new labeling, lighting, and possibly even an electronic guide.
She was hired by the board because she was passionate about bringing forgotten history to life.
However, she could not have been prepared for what she was about to discover.
The Quiet Individual in the Corner
The museum’s beloved “wax figure,” a man sitting with a newspaper in his lap while wearing a brown suit and bowler hat, has been the focal point of the “Everyday Life in 1920” display for fifty years.
On field trips, kids posed next to him. Visitors made jokes about how “real” he appeared. He was lovingly referred to by the staff as Sam the Silent Man.
He had sat there longer than the majority of the employees had existed.
However, that odd odor drew Clara back as she moved around the room, clipboard pressed to her chest.
She knelt down to the figure and examined his hands, his shoes, and the way the light fell on his cheek. There was a problem. The skin had a leathery texture rather than a waxy one.
Over his hand, her fingers lingered. The half-moon ridges on the fingernails were too real. A shiver went through her arms.
