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Community Notes: Plenty of new old things at county museum

By Mckenna Lloyd, Museum Director

We are over halfway through 2024 and so far the year has been full of exciting updates and events at the Floyd County Museum. The museum team is still myself and Scott Galliart, and we are continuously aided by a great group of volunteers and the museum’s board of directors.

This past winter the museum’s Chautauqua Talks series continued with programs about Floyd County ghost towns, Marble Rock, the Salvation Army, Floyd County pioneers, and the 1968 tornado.

If you were not able to attend these talks in person, the Facebook livestreams are still available on the Floyd County Museum Facebook page. This series will resume in September of this year and run through May 2025 with many exciting programs in store for the Charles City community.

Two new exhibits were installed since the beginning of the year: Plenty of Past Paraphernalia and Mid-Century Life.

Plenty of Past Paraphernalia showcases promotional items and swag from various Floyd County business that are mostly no longer open but many residents might remember.

Plenty of Past Paraphernalia also illustrates the ways in which history is preserved unconventionally. In this exhibit we view history through paperweights, T-shirts, ashtrays, pens – items not often thought of as historical artifacts.

Mid-Century Life was installed in May and it displays artifacts from circa 1945-1965. These items are things people would have used on a day-to-day basis as they lived their lives post-WWII but prior to the 1968 tornado that would dramatically change life in Charles City.

You will see a telephone, clocks, kitchen appliances, clothing, and more from the mid-century.

In May the museum welcomed two summer interns to work on special projects for 12 weeks. Alicia and Paige are both originally from Iowa and have been commuting to the museum.

Alicia is working in the museum collection to update records and verify the relevance of items in the textile collection. She has gone through the collection of military uniforms in the museum’s storage and is currently looking at outerwear, like coats and cloaks, to determine whether the items have sufficient paperwork.

Alicia is pursuing her master’s degree in library and information sciences with a museum studies certificate at Iowa University.

Our other intern, Paige, is a digital media major at the University of Northern Iowa. She is creating videos for the museum to use in exhibit spaces and to publish to YouTube.

We had 16mm film that was in the museum collection that came from the Charles City Hart-Parr/Oliver/White plant digitized over the last year and this footage is what Paige is using to create original content for museum use.

You can watch some of the videos Paige has made by searching for the Floyd County Museum on YouTube.

Sometime this year, most likely late summer or early fall, a video display wall will be set up in the museum’s tractor wing that will play one of the videos Paige makes.

Heritage Fest is this weekend, July 27th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.! Heritage Fest is the museum’s largest event of the year. Last year more than 400 people attended and we hope to see that number grow this year.

Some new things to look forward to this year will be a petting zoo, more antique tractors, new crafts and games, a miniature “train” ride, and operational antique machines from the Cedar Valley Engine Club.

We will have two musicians to enjoy: Kris Karr from 10 a.m.to noon, and Jordan Jeffery Messerole from 1 to 3 p.m. Popcorn will be served out of the iconic Charles City popcorn wagon.

The museum will be open for free all day with the Charles City Model Railroad Club room open. Everything at Heritage Fest (except food from the food trucks) is free and open to everyone!

Heritage Fest is about celebrating Floyd County history through family-friendly games, crafts, music, and more. It is the perfect thing to do on a summer Saturday.

If you have driven by the museum recently you might have noticed the work being done on the building. Our exterior masonry/tuckpointing project is finally underway.

After several years of waiting and raising the funds, our mason is here doing much needed work on the building. This work will prevent leaks in the building and make it more waterproof in the future.

Thank you to everyone in the community who has donated or awarded the museum grants to help fund this project.

The museum is open year-round, Wednesday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’re always doing or displaying something new. Check out the museum and learn something about our local history!

You can call us at 641-228-1099 or reach out via email at fcmiowa@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @FloydCountyMuseum.

 

 

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