State history bus will visit Charles City Wednesday during farmers market

Take free tours of ‘Iowa’s People & Places’ exhibition

Press Staff Report

Coming off a three-year run across all 99 Iowa counties, the State Historical Society of Iowa’s mobile museum is back on the road with a brand new exhibit.

The mobile museum will be featured Wednesday, Oct. 12, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. alongside the Charles City Downtown Farmers Market on Blunt Street by Central Park, and the public is invited to take free self-guided tours through the exhibits.

Wednesday marks the second-to-last farmers market of 2022, with the final market set for Saturday, Oct. 15, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Housed in a custom-built Winnebago, the 300-square-foot museum on wheels launched in 2017 and completed its first 99-county tour in 2019, making 175 stops along the way and attracting nearly 65,000 visitors, including 11,400 students. The current exhibition, “Iowa History 101: Iowa’s People & Places” debuted last year and will continue its new journey through 2023.

“Our first tour was a success because we shared an engaging Iowa history experience in towns across the entire state, and Iowans are eager for us to come back with a new exhibition,” said Susan Kloewer, administrator of the State Historical Society of Iowa. “We’re grateful to our community hosts and generous sponsors who are helping make this next 99-county tour possible.”

The new exhibition shares stories from Iowa’s past with an eclectic array of artifacts from the State Historical Museum of Iowa’s permanent collection, plus a video narrated by WOI-TV host Jackie Schmillen.

The new exhibition unpacks some of the stories of Iowa’s past with an eclectic array of artifacts selected from the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines, and its introduction video is narrated by WOI-TV host Jackie Schmillen. Some of the highlights on display include:

• Token from the Hudson Bay Co. from Dubuque County in 1800.
• Election ticket from 1860.
• Knitting needles Iowa first lady Jane Kirkwood of Iowa City used to knit clothing for soldiers during the Civil War and World War I.
• Birchbark lunchbox a Cerro Gordo County boy used in the 1870s.
• Meskwaki cradleboard from the late 1800s.
• University of Iowa pennant from Edward Carter of Monroe County, the first African American to get a medical degree from the University of Iowa, in 1907.
• Women’s suffrage materials from the early 1900s and the pen used by Iowa Gov. William Harding to sign Iowa’s resolution in support of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• Menu from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to Des Moines in 1959.
• Women’s track uniform from Iowa State University from 1972, the year Title IX passed.
• Boots worn by the Des Moines Water Works director during the flood of 1993.
• Flight suit worn by Iowa native astronaut Peggy Whitson on the International Space Station.

“These images and objects remind us of the role Iowans played in global events,” said State Curator Leo Landis. “It’s easy to overlook the significant contributions Iowans have made in promoting equality and liberty, but this exhibit can inspire all Iowans to understand and appreciate Iowa’s past and promote these values.”

The idea for the mobile museum emerged in 2014 from a series of community conversations organized by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, which oversees the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Iowans may request a visit from the mobile museum for their local schools, libraries, museums, community festivals, county fairs and other places where people gather. Visits are complimentary and the tours are self-guided.

More details are available at iowaculture.gov. Iowans can also follow the mobile museum’s statewide journey on Facebook at facebook.com/IowaHistory.

The traveling exhibition presenting sponsor is EMC Insurance Companies and fuel sponsor is Casey’s. Additional partner support is provided by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Winnebago Industries, Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and Mike Wolfe.