This is an image taken of students in the Oskaloosa High School library around 1940. By the traditional standards of the early 21st Century, libraries in the early 20th Century were very small and had little room, giving reason to the notion of…
Fashion is an ever-evolving concept that makes others ponder over why people wore certain clothes or adopted a certain clothing style during a particular time era, especially in the United States. This image depicts the style worn by women in the…
This image depicts one of the earliest banks formed in Mahaska County; the First National Bank. The bank was situated in downtown Oskaloosa on Market Street.
Pictured here is the group of employees that helped run the Iowa Dress Club in downtown Oskaloosa, Iowa, circa 1900. The store was located at 303 A Avenue East and the store specialized in dry cleaning and the sale of wedding dresses and other forms…
This is a still photograph taken of Manoah Hedge, who is credited for writing the first contemporary history of Mahaska County, Iowa. This history published was entitled; Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa. The book documented short, yet…
Pictured on the right of this image is Walter L. McQuiston posing inside his establishment; the McQuiston Grocery Store, around the year 1900. The store was located at 207-209 High Avenue West. The pose in this image was intended to display the…
This was a photograph taken of a Gaar Scott Threshing Machine owned by Frank Harris in Beacon, IA, in 1901. The threshing machine was a mechanism designed to help farmers separate wheat grain from their stalks. The original threshing machine was…
In the early 20th Century, towns would publish postcards of the most esteemed businesses and sights in the community. One of the sights in Oskaloosa, Iowa was the Elmhurst Country Club. Established in 1928, the Elmhurst Country Club was an…
Socializing in and around the Oskaloosa town square was a very familiar sight in the early 1900's. What is fascinating about this photograph is not the two women mingling, but rather the display of various modes of transportation in it. On the left…
Pictured here is the construction of the livestock pavilion at the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa, Iowa in 1917. The livestock pavilion was designed and built by building contractor P.W. Sparks. The pavilion was eventually finished by 1919. The…
