During this Talk of Iowa interview, host Charity Nebbe visits the Herbert Hooover Presidential Museum and gets a tour of a new exhibit,"Tallgrass to Knee High: A Century of Iowa Farming," on display through October 2018. Melanie Weir, assistant curator at the museum, is her guide.
The exhibit highlights farming in Iowa starting in 1910 and looks toward the future of farming in the state. Exhibit materials include women's farm diaries (some spanning four decades), corn husking gloves from different eras, collages, and even a life-size faux milking cow.
The 1980s farm crisis is also included in the exhibition. Wier hopes visitors come away understanding more about the devastating consequences of that crisis for farmers.
"I think people need to understand how it changed the landscape of farming," Wier says. "Some [farmers] lost everything, they walked away with nothing and had to live in a small rental house and had to be grateful for that."
