The Henry Ford museum has a documentary show that focuses on things from their collection. Marty Cooper headed up the team at Motorola that developed the cell phone. It was an invention that changed the behavior of the majority of people on the planet. On April 3, 1973 on a New York City street Cooper made the first cell phone — to his major competitor to tell them they’d succeeded.
Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
Rhea petting horse in harness with owner’s permission – only touch animals after you ask
What Is Old Threshers?
Midwest Old Threshers Reunion is a very unique event in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. There are other “reunions” where people bring steam traction engines, tractors, and small engines to show them off and have a good excuse to get them out and play with them. However, Mt. Pleasant’s event has a broad array of different events and interests gathered in one place. Besides the machinery list above there are groups for old cars, old trucks, antiques, horse teams, an active printers hall, demonstration of equipment like a veneer saw, a threshing machine, and cooking down sorghum, an antique restored steam carousel, quilts, antique dolls, button collectors, a big craft show, trains (you can ride in), trolley cars still on their track (you can ride in), a group demonstrating life in the 1840s in the log cabin village fairly seriously and a group demonstrating life in the late 19th century not so seriously (desperadoes who steal candy & dance hall girls who stay fully dressed), a children’s game area including the chance to drive an actual tractor through an obstacle course and pony rides, fair food, big country music shows, and a theater museum mostly devoted to the traveling shows of the mid-19th to early 20th century. Come visit every year on an expanded Labor Day Weekend. This year it’s August 29 – September 2, 2019.
Events Keep Coming All Year
With all this going on the reunion continues to burst at the seams, but that’s only one week a year. They have a whole bunch of other events through the year.
This isn’t their full schedule, but these are the ones I think you might find interesting.
One of the departments of the organization is a traveling theater museum. It covers things like tent rep, opera houses, show boats, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows.
The event is for doll collectors and those interested in dolls. There are speakers on various topics, everyone gets a gift doll, and there are vendor tables. My post about the year they did a Laura Ingalls Wilder theme is one of my most read.
A county fair like the one the James Wilder family attended in Malone, New York.
Summer Theater Neil and Caroline Schaffner play: “Three In A Bed”:
July 26-27, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. July 28th at 2:30 p.m.
August 2-3, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. and again during the 2019 Reunion
Every summer they once again put on one of the plays once popular with traveling theaters to give you a taste of late 19th/early 20th century entertainment.
It is specifically geared to people practicing or curious about letterpress printing for letterpress printers, from beginners to professionals. They use the extensive collection of printing equipment gathered in the printing part of Museum B. If you want to know about how they ran the paper in De Smet or how Carrie helped run a newspaper this would be a great event to plan for.
Holiday Events
They also run events every year for Halloween when the Midwest Haunted Rails shows you a ghost of a good time and for Christmas when you can take the North Pole Express to visit Santa Claus. Dates are set later in the year.
I hope you come and visit Mt. Pleasant for the best reunion anywhere or any of their other great events.
Watching a Truck from the Trolley During the Reunion
Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+, LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
If you have never visited the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, IL you are missing out. They do a beautiful job preserving their Lincoln Heritage and there are lots of other things to do in Springfield.
And learn new things about them on Facebook, like the recent post below:
During their stay in the White House, the Lincoln family enjoyed the ability to peruse, and purchase books for, the White House library. Some examples of these purchases include titles such as Homes of American Authors; Strickland’s England; Pearls of Ord Island; Spencers Poems; “1 Set Shakespear,” History of New York; Indian Tales; History of Birds; and History of Art.
I combined the January and February mentions posts this time. Even though there isn’t much brand new here, I did find a couple of gems to add to the list.
About Me
I have one that referenced me.
Elzenga, Nicole. “The Dying Art of Letter Writing.” Redwood Gazette. January 3, 2019. p. 4.
By Me
I got one article published in Kirkwood Community College’s student newspaper, the Kirkwood Communique.
Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+, LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+, LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
Recently there was an effort in the Iowa General Assembly to remove the requirement that there be at least one librarian and nurse in every school district. This is being done under the ideal of local control. That is something that I also believe in to as an ideal, but there are certain times and places when the state government needs to step in to ensure something happens. There are times when people making the laws for the state may know things (through constituents reaching out) that the local school board isn’t aware of. For example, study after study proves a student in a school with an active library program and a well supported library achieves more than a student without these things. Another example of this kind is requiring certified teachers which is done on a state level, not a local level. That’s the way to think of this requirement. There are times when the state should step in and I think having a librarian and more so an information literacy program is one of them.
I’ll note here that I worked as a school librarian in two K-12 school districts. However, I’m not employed in one now and I don’t really even know many K-12 librarians any more so this isn’t about me wanting to save anyone’s job. This is about what’s best for the state in creating an educated population.
I’m happy to say the amendment was killed. Below I’m reposting with permission the statement from the Iowa Library Association about this attempt to remove librarians from our schools.
If you want to know more about this instance or about efforts to support libraries and information literacy in schools, or for support for libraries across the board a good place to start is EveryLibrary’s post and then on to the rest of their page.
This from Dan Chibnall, ILA President:
Last evening [Ed. Note: February 28, 2019], the [Iowa General Assembly] Senate Education Committee met to discuss SSB 1190, the bill that contained language striking the requirements for teacher librarians and nurses in Iowa schools. As of last night, that threat no longer exists.
During the committee meeting, Sen. Mark Lofgren proposed an amendment striking the teacher librarian and nurse language from the bill. It passed by voice vote with no opposition. The bill now goes to the full Senate but our teacher librarian colleagues are safe.
Katy Kauffman, the 2019 Iowa Association of School Librarians President, wrote a great email last night to her IASL members and I’m going to borrow a little from that here so you know who was all involved in leading these efforts. The IASL Board, Lisa Beal (IASL Advocacy Chair), Karla Krueger, Joan Taylor, Mike Wright, Zach Stier, Shannon Miller, Cara Stone, Dara Schmidt, and Amanda Vazquez. There were others too, on listservs and social media, in email threads and at the Capitol. Thank you all for your hard work.
I want to give a special shout-out to our incredible lobbyists, Craig Patterson and Amy Campbell. Without them I don’t know where we would be. Thank you so much. Also, another special shout out to EveryLibrary, who came in at the 11th hour to help us in our time of need. If you’re not familiar with them, visit their site and get to know them. Patrick “P.C.” Sweeney and John Chrastka were so helpful with language and for helping us setup on their site to get the emails rolling. They also put together this website telling the story of our victory last night. I recommend you all take a look and share it with others: https://www.saveschoollibrarians.org/a_win_in_iowa.
I cannot thank all of you enough for your incredible efforts to help make this win a reality. When I ran for ILA President years ago, I talked quite a bit about the importance of communication between librarians, libraries, and our legislators. Last night those communication efforts paid off and I was so impressed by the sheer volume of your voices, telling your stories and sticking together with your colleagues across the state. Bravo to all of you. Let’s keep those voices loud and clear for our Legislative Day on March 13th at the [Iowa] Capitol.
If you have a few minutes today, please consider emailing or calling the senators who helped us last night and thank them for their tireless work and their votes.
It’s not always easy to find out about what’s going on for Laura Ingalls Wilder events around the country. I finally decided that current information is probably best posted on a month by month basis so for current information search this site for the name of the month you are looking for and the word event (for example July 2018 Laura Ingalls Wilder Events). Check out the page version of this post which I update with major changes.
Let me know if I’m missing any. Most of these events are annual, but check with the group hosting the event for exact dates for following years.
NOTE: The Little House on the Prairie website uses a more extensive definition of events then I do. So check them out for additional listings. As of February 17, 2019 they hadn’t yet posted their 2019 schedule, but I assume it is in the works.
Silver Lake October 2018
Pepin WI
Laura Days – September 14-15, 2019
Their big Laura event of the year it includes all manners of celebration of Laura including a Little Miss Laura contest, a regional fiddle contest, activities at the birthplace cabin, historic crafts, and Sarah Uthoff as a keynote speaker. The other keynote this year is Renee Graef.
Open 10 AM – 5 PM DAILY (including weekends & holidays) from May 1st thru Mid-October Closed for the winter.
Summer hours are March 1st to September 1st, everyday 10-5 pm.
Winter hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10-5 pm. starting in September till November 1st.
The Little House on the Prairie Cast Reunion is July 12 and 13. Tickets for those nights of the pageant are $35 for Reserved Seats and $33 for General Admission.
Family Festival held in Walnut Grove City Park on pageant Saturdays
July 6, 12-13, and 20, 2019. The festival goes from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm Check the Walnut Grove website for full schedule and more details as it gets closer.
July 11-14, 2019 they will have a Little House on the Prairie TV show cast reunion. They are still under negotiation so no cast list has yet been announced. Watch for more information. Check out my podcasts about my trip to the 2014 Walnut Grove Reunion.
Fri., Feb. 22, 2019 5:30 PM · St. Benedict Church Basement, Decorah, Iowa
New Event – Spring Book Sale 2019 – May 4, 2019
Advent Christian Church Open House (the church by the cemetery at the top of the hill, you drive by the cemetery on the way into town but you have to go through town to reach the parking area and the church)
– May 27, 2019(Memorial Day) 9:30 am – 2:00 pm
The Ingalls Homestead is hosting a Plein Air Event (painting in the open air) in conjunction with the Harvey Dunn Society. Find more details about a previous event. – August 9, 10, 11, 2019
Memorial Society
January-April: Monday thru Friday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
May: Monday thru Saturday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Due to school field-trips our tour times will vary, please call ahead.
June-July: Monday thru Saturday 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Sunday 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM
August: Monday thru Friday 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
September: Monday thru Saturday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Closed Sunday
October-December: Closed over Christmas week,
Monday thru Friday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
*Tentative tour schedule: 10 AM & 2 PM. Subject to change.
Ingalls Homestead
Spring Hours: Last week of April – May 23, Monday – Friday, Hours vary daily as we host school field trips. It is best to contact us for details. During our Spring season we are not open on the weekends.
Summer Hours: May 25 – September 2, Daily 9AM – 7PM
Activities are offered from 10AM – 6PM
The first covered wagon ride leaves around 10AM and the last one leaves at 6PM with rides leaving throughout the day. We are open seven days a week throughout the summer, including Sundays and Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day.
Fall Hours: September 4 – September 30, Daily 9AM – 5PM
Activities are offered from 11AM – 2PM
October 1 – October 31, Daily 9AM – 5PM, weather permitting
No activities offered, but the grounds, visitors center, and gift shop are open.
Winter Hours: The grounds are closed for the winter, but we are still in the office. If you would like to make a camping reservation, request information, or place a phone order, please don’t hesitate to contact us via phone or email.
Spring Valley MN
Annual Meeting – April 7th
Spring Teas – May 11th (reservations required)
Opening Day – May 25th
Ice Cream Social – June 14 5-7 P.M.
Eliza Jane School House Days – End of July
AG Days Town Celebration – August 15-18
Seasonal Closing For Weekdays (Except by Appointment) – September 2nd
Seasonal Closing For All Days (Except by Appointment) – October 27th
Possible Winter House Tours
Almanzo 100 – Gravel road racing through the beautiful rolling countryside of Fillmore County, NE Iowa and SW Wisconsin – Has moved out of Spring Valley
They aren’t planning on continuing the Christmas Teas.
Other events [ Annual Ice Cream Social, Eliza Jane One Room School Days –Ag Days (town celebration) ] aren’t scheduled yet
Mansfield MO
Note: Recently Mansfield has been scheduling small events without a lot of notice. If this trend continues I will add them to list as soon as I find out about them. This year Mansfield has a theme – A Season With Rose.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Children’s Literature Festival will take place on April 25th and 26th, 2019. It will partner with the author appearance in the Marshfield, Missouri’s Cherry Blossom Festival.
April 28, 2019 “Little House” Cast to gather at the Museum in Mansfield to cut the ribbon on a special exhibit. 2:00pm
May 11, 2019 Justamere Graveyard Workshop [dealing with the cleaning of tombstones]
July 8 – 12, 2019 Rocky Ridge Adventure Pioneer Camp
July 24 – 28, 2019 Rocky Ridge Adventure Pioneer Camp
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association is excited to announce the addition of “Rocky Ridge Adventure Pioneer Camp” to our 2019 season! The camp will be for children ages (9-12) and we will offer two different weeks, June 24-28 and July 8-12. Camp will cost $50 per child and will include a week of exciting adventures around Rocky Ridge Farm. Campers will enjoy many learning activities, bringing a hands-on perspective to the pioneer lifestyle. This week of adventure will run from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. daily. There will be a special rate of $5 off each registration with 2 children or more. Camp will take place, rain or shine!! Your child will not want to miss this special week of historic fun and memories!!!! Register today and reserve your spot in the first summer camp to take place at Rocky Ridge Farm!! Registration cost includes 5 days of camp, tin cup, badge, book, shirt and a hat (bonnet for girls and coon skin cap for boys). Download the Registration Form here 2019 Camper Registration Form For more information, call 417-924-3626.
August 2, 2019 7:00pm – Sunset Serenade with Pa’s Fiddle
September 20, 2019 – in the Evening: Annual Wilder Benefit Dinner- Special Guest Alison Arngrim – not sure on the time yet
September 21, 2019 – Wilder Day and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Fiddle Off
November 15, 2019 – Season with Rose comes to an end.
December 7, 2019 – Christmas with Laura 6:00pm
The Ozark Mountain Players has not yet set pageant dates this year, but they always do several shows of Laura’s Memories Pageant during Wilder Days.
Annual Board Meeting where any member may attend Saturday, January 12, 2019, 9:00am Malone Lodge of the Elks, Elm Street Malone RSVP by farm@almanzowilderfarm.com or 518-483-0774.
Celebration of Youth and Morgan Horse – July 20, 2019
Children’s art on display, along with students’ essays. Award ceremony and the announcement of Honorary Laura and Almanzo
Kids art activities, 19th century games, vendors, food
Entertainment & more!
Annual Cultural Festival– Fete du Quebecois – August 24, 2019
Celebrating the French Canadian heritage of the area in the mid 19th century with traditional food, music, demonstrations, craft vendors, and more!
Annual Harvest Festival & Civil War Living History Encampment – September 28-29, 2019
Civil War living history encampment
Pumpkin painting and children’s 19th century game in the orchard, children’s corn pit in the barn,
9th Annual “As Time Passes” adult juried art show on display
Entertainment, demonstrators, craft & produce
Sept. 29, 2018Open extended Sunday hours 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Civil War reenactors living history encampment and one skirmish. Regular admission and guided tours available. Last tour at 3:00 pm.
Christmas with Almanzo– December 7, 2019
Children’s craft activities
Farmer Boy Christmas chapter readings, carol singing.
ALL EVENTS AND TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Vinton IA
Tours are not currently available. We are in doubt of future events due to uncertainty of the future of the building.
Keystone SD – Longtime Home of Carrie Ingalls Swanzey
Carrie Ingalls Swanzey’s Birthday Party – Date Unknown
William T. Anderson
March 5, 2019 – Marysville Public Library, MI
April 25-27, 2019 – Cherry Blossom Fest, Marshfield, MO, Children’s Lit Fest, Panel with Little House on the Prairie TV show stars
May 30-31, 2019 – Fifth Annual Midwest History Conference, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI
American Printing House for the Blind – Louisville, Kentucky
They alternate between a Mary Ingalls party and a Louis Braille party. This year is Mary’s turn. Find out more about their other events.
MARY INGALLS: THE FRONTIER YEARS
Saturday, January 5, 1:00-3:00 pm
“My sister Mary is the reason I am a writer,” said Laura Ingalls Wilder, the celebrated author of the Little House books. Mary lost her sight at the age of fourteen, and Laura became her sister’s eyes, describing the world around her so her sister could “see” as well. Without her sight, Mary was expected to perform her share of the tasks in a frontier family home – housecleaning, cooking, laundry, sewing, looking after children. How did she do that? Our guest exhibitors and presenters are some of our museum friends who are blind or visually impaired. We’ll also sing along with some of Pa’s fiddle tunes, weave a beaded bracelet (the same as those Mary made for her sisters), and celebrate Mary’s birthday with a cake made from Ma’s recipe. Dressing as characters in the Little House books is encouraged. Free to the public but space is limited so registration is required. Call 502-899-2213 or email kcarpenter@aph.org to register. For all ages.
Pomona Public Library – Pomona CA
53nd Annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Gingerbread Sociable – Wednesday, February 6, 2019 3:00PM.
There will be a craft and refreshments provided by the Daugthers of Utah Pioneers who’ll talk about life and sponsored by Friends of the Pomona Public Library.
Old World Wisconsin – Eagle WI
In August 2018 Old World Wisconsin announced that they felt people were getting too focused on events (which frankly is a strange reason to give museum/festival events in general are less of a draw than they were even a few years ago so if they said low attendance was while they weren’t scheduling any would make a lot more sense) and so they are focusing more on on-going activities. I think it will probably return eventually as it has disappeared, returned, stretched to over a month, and shrank back to combined with a single event weekend. However, apparently not this year.
Heritage Hill – Green Bay WI
They are not doing a Laura Ingalls Wilder event this year. Last year they said their plan was to have a Laura event every other year going forward. This would be the year and they don’t have one scheduled. They are working on their 2020 schedule and are considering a prairie days event, but an inquiry brought the response that so far nothing is decided.
Genesee Country Village and Museum – Mumford, NY
This year they won’t be having Wilder Weekend they are replacing it with “Novel weekend – Lewis Carroll.”
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum – West Branch, Iowa
Laura Ingalls Wilder Remembered – Sunday, September 1, 2019 2pm
Sarah S. Uthoff
Colt on Ingalls Homestead
National Cowgirl Museum – Fort Worth, Texas
The National Cowgirl Museum previously had held an annual event, but stopped having it. They brought it back for the 150th as a one shot. This year they are closing for a remodel for February and March and don’t seem to have any events scheduled so far.
Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival – Marshfield, Missouri
UPDATED March 5 2019: I added the Spring Valley dates.
Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+, LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
Lincoln Home Exterior – NPS 
