Winter swept into the south of Iowa again on Friday with cold winds, light snow and hazardous diving conditions in parts of the region --- but five of us museum types set off anyway from Chariton for a field trip to the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines. For those doing roll call --- Kylie (who serves both on the Lucas County and State Historical Society boards), Nash, Kathleen, Karoline and Frank.
This time around, we were most interested in details of how the amazing interpretive displays on two levels of this vast building had been pulled together and interpreted, but here are a few general photographs of some of the things we looked at.
If you've not been there lately --- or never have been --- you're missing a lot. Hours at the museum, located just west of capitol hill in East Village are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday; admission is free; and you can park either in metered spaces along nearby streets or free in the ramp at the corner of East Grand and Penn.
We started in one of the smaller first-floor galleries, home to an exhibit commemorating Iowa's role in World War I on the occasion of its centennial.
Then moved across the lobby into the magnificent "Iowa in the Civil War" exhibit.
Some prefer to look at the weapons of war --- I enjoyed the musical instruments more.
Then we were off to visit old friends --- including the bison that once roamed both Iowa's prairies and what once was called informally taxidermy hall in the original state historical building, now repurposed and renamed Ola Babcock just up the hill.
Iowa's native American roots are well covered among the displays, including the Meskwaki who still call this territory we now share home.
Given time, a history tourist could spend much of a day in the Visible Vault --- where samples from the wonderful and sometimes quirky collection are displayed and effectively interpreted using a range of both printed and digital media.
I'll probably be back here another day with more photographs, but that's about it for this chilly winter morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment