By Karen Kelly | Special to the Times Vedette
If you are interested in World War II and Iowa history, women’s studies, or Iowa authors, you won’t want to miss the library’s presentation on Wednesday, Sept. 11, from 10-11 a.m. Iowa author Linda McCann will be discussing her new book entitled “Rosie the Riveters of Iowa.”
During WWII, many factories were converted to aid in the war effort; because so many men were fighting in the war, women started working in factories. Those female factory workers were nicknamed Rosie the Riveter. More than 100 factories in Iowa hired women who not only worked as riveters but also welders, drill-press and lathe operators, inspectors, and other jobs dealing with small parts. Airplanes, tanks, ammunition and all kinds of parts were produced in Iowa. Many Rosies worked in Iowa; others went further from home. “Rosie the Riveters of Iowa” includes more than 20 personal remembrances from these Iowa Rosies.
McCann has written a number of other books about Iowa connections to historical events. MJB Library also has McCann’s book “Prisoners of War in Iowa.” This book chronicles the stories of WWII German, Italian and Japanese soldiers who were captured and sent to America as Prisoners of War. Approximately 25,000 of these POWs were housed in Iowa camps. While the largest camps in Iowa were Algona and Clarinda, there were smaller branch camps in Audubon, Charles City, Clinton, Eldora, Muscatine, Onawa, Shenandoah, Storm Lake, Tabor, Toledo, Wapello and West Liberty.
These WWII prisoners of war did all types of work including detasseling corn, making hay, working in canning factories, harvesting hemp and working in hemp mills, and building city buildings. McCann interviewed people who interacted with the POWs or had them working on their farms. Surprisingly, Iowans became glad to have these POWs in Iowa. Her book, “Prisoners of War in Iowa,” is one of the few sources of documentation about this bit of history.
Stop in to check out these books, and put Sept. 11 on your calendar to see Linda McCann’s author talk at 10 a.m. at the MJB Library.
Story Hour
Preschool Story Hour is at 10 a.m. Friday mornings. Aug. 16, the theme will be cats. On Aug. 23, the focus is going to be dogs. Because of the county fair, there will be no story hour on Aug. 30.
Card Making Club
The Card Making Club will meet from 9-11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15. Judi Zimmerline will facilitate this session to create one-of-a-kind, handmade greeting cards. The fee for this event is $5, which includes all the materials needed.
Cookbook Club
This month’s featured cookbook is “The Farm Made Cookbook: Traditional Recipes from America’s Farms.” If you’d like to come to the next cookbook club meeting, stop by the library to choose a recipe. Then make the dish and take it and the serving utensils to the MJB Library on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 6:30 p.m.
Library closure
Patrons are reminded that the MJB Library will be closed on Saturday, Aug. 30 for County Fair and Monday, Sept, 2 for Labor Day.
Sewn by Sheri Wetzel, Laura Sheeder and Cindy Steensen and quilted by Gap Creek Mercantile, this amazing quilt is going to be auctioned off during the Guthrie County Fair with proceeds going to the new art hall. It will be on display at the library through the end of August.
Stop in the MJB Library to view this extraordinary collection of Navajo artifacts on loan from Shannon Carter during the month of August.
How did he do that? The audience at the MJB Library Magic show seems to be trying to figure out the trick they just witnessed.
These young patrons who came to watch the magic show eagerly volunteered to assist the magician.
The MJB Library hosted a magic show on Wednesday, Aug. 7. Here, the magician demonstrates a magic rope trick.
A couple of young volunteers help our magician with a magic trick during the library’s magic show.