November 2010

"All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River" This quote captures Franklin D. Roosevelt's connection to Springwood, the estate that he loved & the place he considered home. The first US Presidential Library was started by FDR here. Visit the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Presidential Library & Museum to learn about the only President elected to four terms.

Visitors may enjoy a guided tour of FDR's home, take a self-guided tour of the Museum and stroll the grounds, gardens, and trails of this 300-acre site. Start your visit at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center and see the introductory film and arrange for self guided tours of the Presidential Library and Museum and Ranger-led tours of the historic home. We recommend you plan a minimum of two and one half hours to visit.

Eleanor Roosevelt chose Val-Kill for her retreat, her office, her home, and her "laboratory" for social change during the prominent and influential period of her life from 1924 until her death in 1962. During that time she formulated and carried out her social and political beliefs. This is the place most closely associated with one of the most prominent women of 20th-century America.

Stone Cottage is located on the grounds at Val-Kill and was shared by Eleanor Roosevelt and her two friends, Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman. The main building at Val-Kill served as a furniture factory. When the factory closed in 1936, Mrs. Roosevelt converted it into a cottage for herself. Upon FDR’s death, Val-Kill Cottage became her permanent home.

Enjoy a variety of period specialty fare brought by servers in period dress at the Farnsworth Dining Room. While there, visitors will find the back wall display cases contain memorabilia from the cast and crew of the 1993 movie Gettysburg. Stop for a drink at the tavern, and you just might find Union and Confederate soldiers enjoying a cold beverage themselves. But be careful, the Inn is listed as the 7th most haunted inn in America!

Visitors marvel at the colorful rose window created for the church by Henri Matisse. The design for the window was his last work of art before his death in 1954. The commission, spearheaded by Nelson A. Rockefeller, honors the memory of his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Mrs. Rockefeller, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art , admired Matisse, collected his work, and entertained him in her home in New York City.

The glorious Good Samaritan window by Marc Chagall is a memorial to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller's husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Their son David Rockefeller masterminded the commission in 1963, which later expanded to include all eight windows in the nave of the church. They memorialize, among others, Michael Clark Rockefeller, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, Peggy Rockefeller (Mrs. David Rockefeller), and Mary Rockefeller (Mrs. Laurance Rockefeller). Chagall and members of the Rockefeller family carefully selected the subject matter for the windows from Biblical texts.

The association is a collection of farm sites in Iowa. These sites include the Ioway Indian Village, the Pioneer Farm, the town of Walnut Hill, the horse-powered farm, the Wallace Exhibit Center, and the gardens.

Visitors can discover America’s agricultural heritage as you walk through three working farms, each with authentic crops and livestock. Historical interpreters work at each of the farms, homes and shops and are ready to show visitors the whats, whens, hows and whys of everyday life in the past.

Memberships to the association offer a variety of benefits including unlimited free admission to farms, discounts, early registration opportunities, behind-the-scenes newsletters, and discounted admission at other museums around the nation.

The Floyd County museum is one of the largest rural county museums in all of the Midwest, with over 50,000 artifacts depicting early and recent prairie life, both agricultural and industrial.

In 1999, the museum opened its new climate-controlled exhibit area, featuring historic farm tractors, implements and tools of the last century. Charles City is the birthplace of the gasoline-driven tractor, and the museum displays several models manufactured here: Hart-Parr, Oliver, and White. Visitors should be sure to see the turn-of-the-century drug store, the country school classroom, and other period rooms inside the museum.

Ever since its establishment, the museum has been a collective effort. For women's groups, two chapters of the DAR, the Historical and Literary Club, and the Tuesday Club, offered to create this museum for community development.

The museum has recreated an authentic atmosphere of Victorian family living. Displays are of interest to visitors of all ages. The kitchen holds an electric refrigerator made by the Grinnell Washing Machine Company, one of the first 50 made in 1932. There is a Military exhibit with uniforms from the Civil War to the Vietnam war. The Carriage House holds several horse-drawn vehicles built by the Spaulding Carriage Factory in Grinnell.

The actual structure of the museum site is a half-timbered building set on 20 acres of land which was replicated to look like an authentic Danish farm.

The museum is dedicated to telling the story of the Danish immigration experience across North America. Visitors are invited to explore their travels from different states across the U.S. Traditions carried on by later generations of Danish-Americans are presented in programs, exhibits and special events. This museum is a national center for Danes, gaining recognition each year and providing a gathering place for Danish related meetings and events.

Brucemore’s story is about hundreds of immigrants drawn to Cedar Rapids to work in the families’ businesses. It is about new technology and the expansion of railroads that brought an economic boom to the Midwest. It is about a servant staff whose labor granted their employers a privileged lifestyle.

Over nearly a century, three wealthy families—industrialists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, boosters, and friends—made Brucemore their home. Their fortunes made and their legacies intact, they graciously left their home for the community that helped to build it. Brucemore, while it was home to only a few, carries the history and memories of a community.

Visitors are invited to tour the mansion and surrounding gardens, as well as attend the community arts events held at the facilities.

Built overlooking the historic Fox River, Hazelwood was originally the home of the Morgan and Elizabeth Martin family who were a political and cultural force in the city and state for almost one hundred years. It is filled with many original furnishings, family photographs, paintings and artifacts. The historic house is located in the same place it was constructed upon in 1837.