Who was Herman Eifert

A complex and intellectual man, Herman was born in 1908 in Springfield. With masters degrees in English and Ecology (certainly a rare subject in the 1950’s), he was also a gifted musician, teacher, choir director, organist, and museum curator for the same museum Virginia worked at. As curator of Education, he shepherded thousands of children through various Museum programs and tours. He was also Virginia’s studious proof-reader with editing skills that matched the rest of his life. He died in 1980 at aged 72.

Herman D. Eifert, a familiar figure at the Museum, especially to those who took group tours or who viewed the Saturday Adventure and Sunday Afternoon programs, has retired after 13 years as Head of the Education Section. Mr. Eifert’s duties were numerous, varied, and time-consuming. During his first years at the Museum, he traveled to the schools talking about small exhibits he took with him; now the classes come to the Museum in ever-growing numbers. For several years he supervised the Museumobile, a traveling van of exhibits, and scheduled its tours throughout the state. Audio-visual services, which had been available to schools and other educational groups before he came, were expanded with continued emphasis on accuracy in the content of materials.

Mr. Eifert initiated the Sunday Afternoon Programs and the Children’s Summer Programs. He personally supervised each program. He always helped arrange space in the Museum and assisted with the setup for community projects and exhibits such as the Girl Scout Toy Shop, Senior Citizens Film Programs, Springfield Civic Garden Club Exhibits, and the Ceramics and Craft Club. He assisted in decorating the lobby Christmas tree and provided recorded music. Responsible for the preparation of educational materials, he wrote many of the audiophone scripts for the Museum exhibits. He updated old scripts and wrote seven new ones for the auditorium school programs, supervised the slide photography to illustrate the scripts, and prepared teacher-guides for each program. He prepared numerous publicity folders and picture booklets about the Museum.

The last booklet, published in HERMAN D. EIFERT 1976, is in full color and is available from the Museum Society. He served as Editor of the Quarterly of the Midwest Museums Conference from 1969 to 1976. Before coming to the Museum, Mr. Eifert was a teacher of biology, physiology, and English at Glenwood High School, Chatham, and later at Feitshans High School, Springfield. Under a National Science Foundation Grant, he spent a summer at the University of Arizona studying anthropology in order to enrich his interpretations of the Museum’s anthropological exhibits. A native of Springfield and a talented musician, he was the organist and choir director at St. John’s Lutheran Church for many years and later served for 25 years in the same capacity at the Christ Episcopal Church. 

From a story about Herman’s retirement, published in the Living Museum magazine in 1977, Vol 39 –  the same magazine Virginia started 39 years before.