Artifact Iowa
Iowa’s history is still with us - embedded in objects, inventions and everyday items that quietly carry the stories of the people who lived, worked and dreamed here. These tangible remnants open windows into how Iowans once thought, what they valued and how they shaped the world around them.
Artifact Iowa tells Iowa’s story through real objects from Iowa’s past. Each episode will center on a single artifact to unpack the larger human story behind it - revealing moments of innovation, resilience, creativity and change that define our state’s history.
The loan of this Brown Bess musket to David Williams during the Revolutionary War foiled Major John André’s plans.
In colonial America, keeping locks of hair was a common form of remembrance.
The Moses Littlefield drum was used during the War of 1812 and later to train Civil War soldiers in Iowa.
Made to remember the Revolutionary War, this 1804 Liverpool Pitcher arrived in America as ship ballast.
This 1843 copy of the Declaration of Independence has found its way to Iowa through a descendant of one of the signers.