Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Carnegie museum completes three new exhibits in 2024
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
In 2024, the Carnegie Historical Museum saw increased traffic on its Facebook page, where we now have 1,600 followers. We expect that number to grow in the coming year, based on the first 28 days in January 2025, by which point the Facebook page had received 95,146 views! We also expect more traffic on our Instagram and X accounts.
The number of visitors to the actual building in 2024 was 3,839. This included people from class reunions and elementary school field trips. We continue to be amazed at how far some people travel to visit the Carnegie. How do you suppose our visitors from China, New Zealand, and Scotland, for instance, even heard about us? Perhaps they watched all 4 parts of the 2024 podcast done by "Southeast Iowa Today with John Bain," available on YouTube, which features our director Jake Schmidt expounding upon the treasures on display here.
With a staff of two, director Schmidt and researcher Charlotte Wright continue to rely on the help of dedicated and skilled volunteers to keep our building and its displays clean and updated, our many donated items processed, and our files and storage areas organized. Throughout 2024, we were able to count on Chris Small, Art McBreen, Scott Lowe, Susan Shafer, and Rita Puder to volunteer on a regular basis. In addition, several of the members of our Museum Board of Directors help us with repair and restoration work, computer problems, and general problem-solving! Total volunteer hours for the year were 1,309. If you are interested in history and would like to explore the possibility of volunteering at the Carnegie, contact Jake Schmidt to fill out an application.
Our Herring Gallery, which contains historical items from Fairfield and the smaller towns in Jefferson County, continues to be popular, particularly to people whose roots run deep here. Visitors love seeing historical objects and documents about churches, schools, philanthropic and social organizations, cemeteries, industries, and businesses. As donations of local history items continue to pour in, we often add new objects to the display cases. Donations of particular interest we received in 2024 were research notes of local genealogists/historians Verda Baird and Richard K. Thompson.
The popular monthly interviews with Jefferson County's Century Farm families and the displays of their family heirlooms will continue in 2025, but we will also be adding both Heritage Farms and Golden Anniversary Farms, as well as farms in Van Buren County. Each featured family is invited to speak at the museum on the first Friday of the month at 6 p.m. These free programs are videotaped by Fairfield Media Center and afterward are posted to YouTube. To find programs from the past two years, search YouTube for Carnegie Historical Museum Heritage Farm Series. The first program in 2025 will be in April. If you want to talk to someone about including your family farm in this program, call Jake Schmidt.
Thanks to funds raised by the Carnegie Museum Foundation Board, the tuckpointing process for the building's exterior brick was completed in 2024, as was the replacement of the old windows for new ones that look more like the building's original windows and are also more energy-efficient. Next up will be putting blinds on the windows that will filter out some of the heat that can be damaging to objects in the display cases.
Three new exhibits were completed in 2024: a new case was built to showcase the Japanese Samurai armor from the 1500s, Art McBreen completed his "Fungarium" exhibit displaying samples of the area's mushrooms and information about mushroom clubs past and present, and Charlotte Wright completed her year-long gathering of the Cameroon artifacts donated to the museum by Charles W. and Myrtle McCleary, Fairfield missionaries to West Africa beginning in the 1890s.
Now that the museum is officially listed on the DNR's National Network to Freedom, we plan to continue having a Juneteenth program every year to honor both the formerly enslaved people who escaped and the people who helped them. Our research into this facet of Jefferson County history is ongoing.
In addition to giving tours, mounting displays, and doing research, Jake and Charlotte have been working behind the scenes to make sure the museum's procedures and official forms are up to the standards suggested by the Iowa Museum Association. They completed their first year training in the IMA's STEPS program and look forward to their second year of training in 2025.
The monthly Lunch and Learn presentations, held at noon on the fourth Friday of each month, are arranged by volunteer Kathy Tollenaere. Held in a meeting room on the 2nd floor, these programs are free to museum volunteers and members of the Friends of the Museum group, but members of the public can attend for a $5 fee. Topics covered by speakers in 2024 included the history of the Fairfield Police Department, early photographic methods, and a recounting of the history and current renovations to Fairfield's Beck/Sloca house.
For information about joining Friends of the Museum, about any of our programs or displays, about the gift shop, about holding a reunion or meeting at the museum, or about donating historical items or money, please call the museum at 641-472-6343 or stop by and talk to Jake. Our hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. On the first Friday of each month (Art Walk), we stay open until 9 p.m. We are closed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, although special tours can sometimes be arranged by calling the museum number.
