O UR  C OLLECTIONS. 

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The Floyd County Museum's collections include:

Hart-Parr / Oliver / White Collection

Contains company history files, annual reports, company photographs, negatives and slides, union records (United Auto Workers union, Local 1415), motion picture films, technical manuals, blueprints, sales literature, artifacts from the factory and tractors produced in the Charles City, Iowa, plant. Collection spans 1889-1995.

Note: Original and reprinted manuals are for sale as well as Oliver motion picture films transferred to video tape. Please visit our For Sale: Historic Tractor Manuals Web site for further information, or call the Museum.

Legel Collection

Collection of artifacts from the Legel Drug Store in Charles City, Iowa. Collection contains apothecary bottles, store fixtures, mixing / compounding / distilling / dispensing apparatus, medical appliances, general merchandise, and ephemera. Donated in site to the Floyd County Historical Society and opened as a museum in 1962. Collection spans 1884-1962.

Local History Files

Newspaper clippings, monographs, obituaries, and research papers on the history of Floyd County. Collection spans 1850-present. About 25 linear feet.

For genealogical and other local-interest research, also visit the Floyd County page of the Iowa GenWeb Project Site, which includes online access to selected historical and vital records, biographies of early Floyd County citizens, and information about other nearby historical organizations.

Library and Archives

Contain incomplete runs of the city directory of Charles City; plate maps; Sanborn fire insurance maps; local tax records; Charles City urban redevelopment appraisals (1968); and county-wide newspapers in bound volumes, including: Charles City Intelligencer, Charles City Press, Floyd County Advocate, Familien Freund, and X-Rays. (Bound volumes are incomplete.) Bulk of collection spans late 1850s-1930s.

Note: The Charles City Public Library has a more complete collection of Charles City's daily newspapers on microfilm and we recommend that researchers consult that collection first.

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Collection

Several artifacts and about 1.5 linear feet of documents pertaining to the noted woman suffrage leader and founder of the League of Women Voters, who was reared in rural Charles City. An online finding aid describes the collection's holdings in greater detail. Collection spans about 1890-1995.

Local History Artifact Collection

Over 50,000 artifacts ranging from pre-history through the twentieth century, primarily focusing on the period 1850-1950. Includes household, agricultural, professional, trades, leisure, transportation, decorative arts, textiles, folk art, and military-themed materials.

Charles City Model Railroad Club

HO-scale train layout established 1980. Club meets weekly at the Museum, 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays.

Top:
Traveling show
ca. 1910
Charles City, Iowa
Floyd County Historical Society

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