Thanks to Michael Elbert, Marilyn (Miller) McFarlin, Mary Thompson Ingvoldstad, and Louise Thompson Stefanowicz for responding and confirming that this metal basket was once used at Carr’s Pool in Ames.  Summarizing their comments, we are reminded that:

• A numbered metal basket and tag were obtained from swimming pool attendants after paying the admission.
• In the men’s or women’s changing rooms, swimwear was donned and street clothes were placed in the metal basket.
• A round brass tag was worn on one’s wrist with a cord or sometimes pinned to a swimsuit.
• Attendants kept the baskets in numerical order behind the counter in secure rooms adjoining the changing areas. After swimming (and perhaps a lengthy search for a lost tag on the bottom of the pool!), the tag was presented to the attendants for the matching clothes basket.

Do you have one of those Carr's Pool brass tags?  The Ames Historical Society is interested in taking a picture of one (or even acquiring one).

Regarding that picture you have on your web site of a man and woman sitting in front of a pump organ I hope that I can help a little. I cannot identify the woman sitting nor the man standing but I can identify the pump organ.  It is a Story & Clark pump organ from the 1890's.  The irony is that I may have the very same Pump Organ. I bought it on ebay about 6 years ago. It came from a dealer in Independence, Missouri.  Iowa is only one state from Missouri. I don't how close Ames, Iowa and Independence, Missouri are from each other but things moved quickly when estates were sold.

Story & Clark was located in Illinois and may have made many pump organs of this type, however they were hardly mass produced as things are today.  Additionally, how many pump organs would have survived intact over the years. I studied the picture carefully and held it in front of my pump organ and every detail is exact; even to the carpet on the pedals. When I got the organ, I could not help the unusual glossy shine on the finish and concluded that someone must have covered it in shellac to give it that high gloss finish. I could tell by the drips down the back. I also noticed that the pump organ in the picture was unusually shiny. As an Antique collector, furniture did not typically have a glossy finish as it may be considered to be garish. You usually see this shine when someone shellacs it. I really tried to see if I could find any differences but I didn't. I opened up the back of the organ but I didn't find any writing that may suggest owners or something similar.

I hope this can help you. If you can, could I have a copy of the photo?   Good luck!!
Edwin Calderon
Staten Island, NY

This mystery photo has recently been identified by Becky Jordan, Library Assistant in Special Collections Department at Parks Library.  Local antique car collector, Grant Quam, had previously determined that the vehicle pictured was of about 1908 vintage.  Using this date and the J.D. Cline, DVM on the store front window as clues, Ms. Jordan searched old alumni records and discovered that a Jesse Dean Cline had graduated from Iowa State College with a degree in Veterinary Medicine in 1910.  Consulting old ISU yearbooks, she found that Dr. Cline had participated in track, glee club, and literary society while on campus.  Further research showed that Cline practiced veterinary medicine in York, Nebraska (note the word York on the door) from 1910 to 1912, returned to Ames as an extension lecturer for a year, then practiced in Clarion from 1913 to 1918, when he switched to real estate.

David Weiss, a former Ames resident now living in Hubbard, identified the car as a Reo.  He added that it can be dated as 1906, the last year that wood-spoked wheels were used by this company.  Thanks are also extended to Carol Cummings for her research of Iowa-based Cline families.