Des Moines County Historical Society

Above: Beaded Strike-A-Light on commercially tanned leather with glass and brass beads, tin cones, and metal tacks.Apache. Circa 1880-1900 Before Europeans arrived on Turtle Island (North America) Native peoples lacked a written language. Instead, they passed down their stories and legends orally and through their art. Porcupine quills, paints, and eventually beads were used to… Read more: Beadwork: Storytelling Through Art

Aldo Leopold was a Burlington native, conservationist, and renowned author. The following text is taken from his book A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There. This extension of ethics, so far studied only by philosophers, is actually a process in ecological evolution. Its sequences may be described in ecological as well as in… Read more: Aldo Leopold Land Ethic

This year is the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the suffragette movement that made it all possible. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 26, 1920. But the struggle for the ballot began decades earlier, when Iowa was first opened for settlement, and then became a state. The story of… Read more: 2020: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage