I have, somewhere around here, three Sheaffer fountain pens --- all fine examples of what once upon a time was an iconic Iowa brand, based in Fort Madison.
About all that remains of Sheaffer today in this Mississippi riverside town, perhaps better known as the home of the Iowa State Penitentiary, is the Sheaffer Pen Museum. The brand has been sold and resold as the years have passed, most recently to William Penn, an India-based stationary and specialty gift company.
The good news for Iowa in all of this is that William Pen owner Nikhil Ranjan, who visited Fort Madison last week with his parents, promised that the company would do what it could to keep the museum up and running.
There's a report of that visit here, in the latest edition of Pen City Current, an online journal serving Fort Madison, Keokuk and other localities in far southeast Iowa. You'll find the article here.
The museum fell upon hard times during 2018 and closed, but reopened during January of this year. While its online presence is sketchy, there is an active Facebook page here.
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