Customer Reviews

An Iowa Album : A Photographic History, 1860-1920

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Photographic histories of any subject are interesting almost by definition. The images capture for all time specific characteristics of the people and places. In the timeframe covered in this volume, Iowa was almost totally a rural state, with many of the farm families being isolated. That isolation was not total, the reason that Iowa has so many counties was to make sure that every citizen was within a one-day buggy ride from the county seat of government.
The modern world was just beginning to take hold in the state in the first two decades of the twentieth century. There are photos of cars alongside horse and buggies, electric trolleys and wood stoves. One striking feature is how much clothing the people wore, even in summer. There are several photos of people sitting outside or on picnics in the summer and the men are wearing long-sleeve shirts with a coat or vest and the women thick, ankle-length dresses with high collars.
This is a book that should be in every library in Iowa, for it clearly shows the state the way it was for the first seventy years.