Curator's 2004 Report


Ames Historical Society Collections Annual Report for 2004 by Dennis Wendell photos from the Ames Historical Society Annual Meeting

The year 2004 has been an exceptionally good one for documenting Ames history. Records were once again broken – a total of 91 gifts were accessioned from 65 donors. Individual donations ranged from a single item to hundreds of artifacts. All collections were greatly enriched: archives, artifacts, books, audio-visuals, photographs, and maps. Collections Curator, Dennis Wendell, and Collections Assistant, Sara Vouthilak, were challenged to keep up with the pace of collecting and organizing materials. Limited floor space was continually reorganized to make room for collections and activities. After attending the Midwest Archives Conference last fall, the curator returned with new ideas for future endeavors. Major amounts of time were spent creating the new web site. Important gifts of essential equipment included microfilm readers, gondola shelving for artifacts, and a refrigerator for film negative storage.


COLLECTIONS
Businesses: Ames Bulletin Board – complete set of issues 1951 to date; Ames Engraving – clippings, photos, price lists; Ames Theatre – marquee letters, red & blue light bulbs, and AMES sign; carbon arc lamp; Christensen Hardware – 1931 wall calendar; Collegiate Mfg. Co. – cloth & leather emblems, personality pets, catalogs, original designs; Dixon Drug – 1943 calendar; Howard Flying Service – propeller-shaped letter opener; Mikado Restaurant – menus, dishes, and wait-staff happi coats; Spic and Span Grocery – scooter with advertising

Organizations: Christian Science Church – correspondence from churches in England, France & Holland; First Methodist Church – color slides and photos of sanctuary, choirs, organs; Friends of Halletts – records 1999-2003; North Star Country Club – records 1912-1914, 1917-1919, 1944

Residents: Arrasmith – family history; Brown – 1870s gouache portraits; Cole – family photos and scrapbooks; Hannum – family history; Ringgenberg family – archival materials & hundreds of rural life artifacts; Underwood – family photos and scrapbooks

Schools: Ames High – photographs of class reunions

Other: Ames-College bus token; railroad lantern & switch lamps from old C&NW switchyards; Ada Hayden

VOLUNTEERS

Faithful volunteers have contributed over 700 hours of service during the year!

Perhaps half of those hours were spent by webmaster Alan Spohnheimer in bringing our new website online.
Considerable effort went into organizing loose photographs in the Ames Tribune Photo Archive. Liz Smith, Ellen Stewart, Jack Froehlig, Sarah Dentlinger, Cecilia Finken, and Brenda Schmitt from the State 4-H Youth Conference began indexing “mug shot” photos and inputting entries into a computer database.
Martha Rasmussen and SeoYoung Kim spent much of the year sorting and organizing black & white photographs and news clippings of individuals.
A non-traditional history student, Alice Mellen, began the labor-intensive task of identifying and cataloging negatives in the Archive.
Further effort was contributed by Veishea Community Involvement Committee volunteers, Heath Brock and Cory Hanson, who input several hundred names into the “mug shot” database. For a change of pace, Abe Schwager and Brent Schaub exercised their muscles by moving large, heavy artifacts to a separate storage facility.
Deborah King, an ISU graduate student in Textiles & Clothing, spent more than half the year cataloging, marking, preserving, and re-housing our textile collection.
Without exception, all Board members have contributed countless hours within their special assignments.

DONORS

Numerous friends have donated items in 2004. For all of these generous donors the Society is most grateful!