March/April 2024 (Volume 16, Issue 2)

 

By Jeff Morgan

Built in 1987, the State Historical Building of Iowa houses nearly 209 million pieces of Iowa history, including one of the first electric cars in Iowa (1919), a pair of Abraham Lincoln’s reading glasses and a lock of George Washington’s hair.

 

Over the years, countless students have taken field trips to the building; presidential candidates have held campaign rallies in its atrium; and people from around the world have roamed through its museum exhibits.

 

Below the surface, however, the building was in surprisingly poor shape. Weather-related water leaks continually threatened to damage historic materials and caused numerous problems for staff and visitors.

 

“We had tremendous concerns for our collections every time we had a heavy rain,” State Curator Leo Landis said. “Water would leak through the skylights or cracked drain pipes that ran through the building, and we spent many hours cleaning up major messes to protect artifacts and archival materials.”

 

After several years of careful planning and preparation, the state launched a $13.3 million renovation project five years ago to protect and preserve the collection, stop the leaks and fix the pipes, and bring peace of mind to staff and visitors. A local team led by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, Neumann Monson Architects, Ball Team and Ryan Companies oversaw the project.

 

Construction wrapped up last October, yielding a beautiful new atrium space with views of the Iowa State Capitol, a dynamic renovation of the Iowa History Research Center and brand new flooring in the atrium. The leaky skylights were replaced with a new roof and window-wall designed to safeguard the building’s interior and make the most of natural light. Funding for the project came from the Iowa Legislature’s Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund and private funding.

 

“The end result of all the work has been transformational,” Landis said. “Today, we are fully reopened to our regular hours and guests are having a fresh, new experience interacting with our exhibits while researchers are enjoying greater access to materials in our research center.”

 

The completion of the renovation coincided with the opening of a brand new museum exhibit called “Civics in Action,” which focuses on significant events, court cases, caucuses and issues that shaped the future of Iowa and the United States.

 

The exhibit features the Iowa caucuses and Iowans of action with more than 60 artifacts, including a Ding Darling political cartoon, election tickets from the 1860s and ‘70s, an Olympic torch, Iowa caucus artifacts — banners, buttons, brochures and more — and the pen Ambassador Terry Branstad used to sign legislation for the construction of the State Historical Building of Iowa when he was governor.

 

Museum visitors can also tour a number of other exhibits, including “Hollywood in the Heartland,” “Iowa and the Civil War” and “Iowa’s People & Places,” which has been supplemented online with a Spanish language translation of exhibit text, and braille transcription is available in person at the museum information desk.

 

In addition, two iconic artifacts of the 1910s are “flying” in the atrium again. The Benoist biplane and the Curtiss Model D Pusher biplane were “grounded” in advance of the renovation. In November, they were cleared for takeoff and are now suspended from the atrium ceiling.

 

TO READ THE ENTIRE STORY AND OTHER FASCINATING STORIES ABOUT IOWA HISTORY, subscribe to Iowa History Journal.