Mission Houses curator Peggie Ehlke dead at 81
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Peggie Silverman Ehlke's legacy is reflected in the authenticity of the projects she handled as curator and registrar of the Mission Houses Museum.
"She was quite important in furthering the Hawaiian culture in her area," Lee Wild said of her friend and former co-worker, who died Oct. 18 at age 81.
Peggie Silverman Ehlke strove for authenticity in the restoration, acquisition and creation of exhibits.
Ehlke, whose late mother, Violet Silverman, also worked at Mission Houses Museum, is fifth generation of a kama'aina family. "It was her mother that got her involved in the Mission Houses Museum," Wild recalled.
Ehlke's goal in restoration, acquisition and creating exhibits was authenticity. It was a quest she always regarded as a challenge, an adventure, said friends.
In 1970, for example, Ehlke started a project to build a duplicate of the Ramage Press, which had printed the first Hawaiian language book. The press disappeared after being taken to Maui for schoolbook printing.
She and Albertine Loomis, great-granddaughter of the first Mission printer, worked for two years to track down a press to copy before discovering one in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., that was validated by the Smithsonian Institution. Ehlke supervised the building of the duplicate press by Honolulu Tech and in 1972, on the 150th anniversary of the printing of the Hawaiian text, the press performed flawlessly.
She is survived by husband, Edmund; sons, Douglas and Kenneth Schleif; daughters, Marjorie Hodson and Barbara Rogers; brother, Stafford Silverman; sisters, Jane Silverman and Barbara Schaefer; seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
A 10 a.m. service today will be held at Church of the Crossroads on University Avenue.
