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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Grinnell’s library home to two historical archive rooms
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
GRINNELL — Grinnell’s Drake Community Library has many services available to the public, from books to newspapers, magazines, general reference material, a children’s section, public computers, after school and summer children and teen reading programs, adult programming, public display cases and community meeting rooms.
Also located in the library, near the front desk, are two rooms filled with research materials for public use.
The Iowa Room is available and open to the public anytime the library is open. It includes books about the State of Iowa and Iowa history.
There is a collection of local cook books from across Poweshiek County and also available for research use is a microfilm machine for viewing 150 years of the Grinnell Herald-Register newspapers dating back to the 1870s.
In addition, the Iowa Room features Poweshiek County obituaries dating back to the 1880s through the present day.
Also available to the public is the restricted archives room. Collections from this room must be viewed under staff supervision and appointments are preferred.
“We have more than 300 collections of historical materials related to Grinnell schools, churches, local businesses, family histories and local clubs and organizations,” said Veronica Ruse, library assistant and overseer of the local history archives.
Ruse said the restricted archives room focuses mainly on Grinnell history.
Collections include Grinnell High School yearbooks dating back to 1911 and records from the City of Grinnell, papers of the Daughters of the American Revolution — Grinnell Chapter and more than 300 Earl Blair pencil drawings of Grinnell buildings. The late Blair donated his work to the library several years ago.
Also located in the restricted room is history of the Mayflower Homes, Grinnell Medical Center records, photographs of Grinnell aviator Bill Robinson, who founded the Grinnell Aeroplane Company, the Spaulding Manufacturing Company, the Morrison Glove Factory, information on J.B. Grinnell and books and information on Grinnell’s Jewel Box Bank designed by Louis Sullivan.
There are also stereoscopic slides of the Grinnell Cyclone of 1882 that did much damage in the city.
“It was one of the most photographed events in early Grinnell history,” said Ruse, who has been working in DCL Archives for three years.
Ruse’s position includes accepting public donations to the archives.
“I arrange the donations into different collections,” she said. “I help people with research and provide answers to reference questions about local history.”
She also works with Grinnell College classes on research projects. One of her most recent projects was working with an architecture class at the college researching different buildings in Grinnell.
“The students made posters from their research,” she said. “The student research posters were displayed at Drake Community Library for an exhibit spotlighting local architecture and were donated to the archives afterward.”
The archives were founded in 1990 by Dorrie Lalonde at the former Stewart Library on Broad Street.
“She started accepting donations of local history for people and storing the materials in the library attic,” noted Ruse.
“When the Drake Library was built, it included an environmental controlled room for historical collections. It features condensed movable shelving for storage.”
In addition, the library maintains a collection of books by local authors from Grinnell and Poweshiek County. The books are available inside the library, but can’t be checked out.
The collection, which is located in one of the library meeting rooms, includes all 12 of the books written by Ruth Suckow, a 1910 graduate of Grinnell High School. This includes a first edition copy of Suckow’s first book, Country People, published in 1924.
Poweshiek History Preservation Project
The Poweshiek History Preservation Project was found in 2013 as a collaboration between Drake Community Library and the Grinnell College libraries.
The project features 2,300 digitized photos of Grinnell and Poweshiek County. The goal of the project is to collect the stories of Poweshiek County through images, documents and other resources that are made accessible online.
Due to staffing changes at the library in August 2024, PHPP is paused for the time being, and new donations will not be accepted at this time. Updates to the PHPP Facebook page will also be on pause.
The photographs Drake Community Library has collected through PHPP will remain available to view both in Digital Grinnell and on the PHPP Facebook page.
Veronica Ruse background
Ruse, who hails from Romania, holds a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in philosophy and political science. She’s currently attending the University of Iowa where she will graduate in May with a master’s degree in library and information science and a certificate in special collections and archives.
For more information on the historical collections at Drake Community Library, reach out to Ruse at vruse@grinnelliowa.gov. Appointments can be made at calendly.com/dclarchives or you can reach Ruse by phone at 641-659-6929.
