State History Mobile Museum in Manchester This Week

The State Historical Society of Iowa’s mobile museum is in Manchester this week.

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. The current exhibition, “Iowa History 101: Iowa’s People & Places,” debuted two years ago and will continue its 99-county journey through the end of this year.

The 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. Guests will see iconic artifacts that reflect the role of Iowans in state, national and international events, including a Meskwaki cradleboard representing the past and continued presence of Native nations in Iowa. They’ll also see women’s suffrage materials from the early 1900s and the pen used by Iowa Governor William Harding to sign Iowa’s resolution in support of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The mobile museum has been parked at the Manchester Public Library since Monday – and the public is invited to stop by to take free self-guided tours. It will be there for a couple more days – today from 10 to noon and 2 to 4 pm and again on Friday from 11 to 1.

photo courtesy of State Historical Society of Iowa