Wichita business specializes in diving helmets and is auctioning an important one

It’s almost insulting, but there’s a question that Nation’s Attic owners Don and Jenny Creekmore have come to expect every day.

“What are you doing in Kansas?” their national and worldwide customers ask.

That’s because the primary focus of Nation’s Attic is selling antique diving helmets, so Don Creekmore said it’s a fair question since Kansas is a landlocked state.

“With the internet, location just isn’t as big a deal anymore as it used to be.”

The internet also is where the Creekmores are holding a Saturday auction, the highlight of which will be what Don Creekmore calls the earliest-known example of the world’s best-known helmet: the U.S. Navy Mark V.

“It’s the one in all the movies.”

He said the one being auctioned dates to Aug. 24, 1916.

“It was just found up in Minnesota. It had been in a house laying on the floor for the last 50 years.”

The Mark V has come to be Creekmore’s favorite type of helmet. His interest started a couple of decades ago when he went to an estate sale in Wichita where there happened to be an antique diving helmet that caught his interest.

“Something clicked.”

A business was born a few years later.

Creekmore, who said he’s always liked antiques, graduated from Wichita State University with an entrepreneurship degree in 1998 and started an eBay-type company that he’d created a business plan for as a final class project. The business didn’t work.

When he decided to relaunch an online business, he said, “I wanted to get into an area that wasn’t common but yet there’s a lot of value and a lot of interest in the area.”

He said Nation’s Attic now is “actually the largest dealer in the world of these things — not that there’s an incredible amount of competition out there.”

Most helmets he sells are between $5,000 and $10,000, Creekmore said. He expects the 1916 helmet to fetch between $20,000 and $40,000.

He said unlike more popular items, such as baseball cards or comic books, there aren’t price guides to buying helmets.

“It’s just a niche area that I learned over time.”

He said there are thousands of variations and different models from the past couple hundred years.

Nation’s Attic has had a physical address on South Pattie for 15 years, but it’s not a retail outlet.

“It’s really not ever been necessary to have retail in Wichita,” Creekmore said.

There are hardly even any local customers, except for the occasional one from Wichita or Kansas.

He’s become known for helmets, though, and received a call about the 1916 helmet in February.

Creekmore said it’s bone-stock original, which means it has not been modified in any way.

Prebidding is at $18,000, he said.

The online-only auction is at 10 a.m. Saturday at liveauctioneers.com and invaluable.com.

There are 300 lots in the auction, 20 of which are helmets. The other items are related to diving.

Though helmets and diving items keep the Creekmores busy enough, Don Creekmore said they occasionally deal in other items, such as coin-operated devices from the 1920s and ’30s and old advertising signs.

Though it seems like such a special helmet as the 1916 one might be difficult to part with for a person who collects them, that’s not how Creekmore is looking at it.

“It’s more of an honor to handle it . . . and have it go to the next home,” he said.

“Normally, it’s probably not something I would be able to afford to own,” Creekmore said. “Just to have a chance to be part of its history is special to me.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 4:25 PM.