“It tells the story without taking up the space,” Betty Seabury Mitchell said of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian on the corner of Central Street and Central Park Avenue in Evanston. Without Mitchell and her late husband, John, there wouldn’t be a story or the evening’s benefit celebrating his 100th birthday. About 80 guests turned out to honor this amazing lady who, at 92, still swims in a lake in Beulah, Mich. “The years are just rolling back,” she said. In 1977, the Mitchells donated 3,000 American Indian artifacts to create the museum, which has grown to include more than 9,000 items. Although the collection is growing, the museum isn’t moving. “We’re separating from Kendall College but staying in the same spot,” said Janice Klein, museum director. “We don’t want to pull out of Evanston. It would be counter to everything Mr. Mitchell envisioned” for a community museum. A museum where every year 7,000 kids touch a piece of their history.
