Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. It is a part of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City region of Eastern Iowa, which includes Linn, Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Jones, Johnson, and Washington counties.
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for American Gothic (1930), which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art.
Bourke Blakemore Hickenlooper was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Iowa. He was lieutenant governor from 1939 to 1943 and then the 29th Governor of Iowa from 1943 to 1945. In 1944, he won election to the first of four terms in the United States Senate, where he served until 1969.
The Great Seal of the State of Iowa was created in 1847 and depicts a citizen soldier standing in a wheat field surrounded by symbols including farming, mining, and transportation with the Mississippi River in the background. An eagle overhead bears the state motto.
Michael Thomas Blouin, American politician, was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1979, representing Iowa's 2nd congressional district. He was a candidate in the 2006 race for Governor of Iowa but lost in the primary to Chet Culver.
Paul Danny Pate Jr. is an American businessman and politician serving as the 32nd and current Secretary of State of Iowa since 2015, previously holding the office from 1995 to 1999. Pate is the Past President of the National Association of Secretaries of State. A member of the Republican Party, he also served in the Iowa Senate from 1989 to 1995 and as Mayor of Cedar Rapids from 2002 to 2006. He was an unsuccessful candidate for his party's nomination for Governor of Iowa in 1998.
Earl Gregg Swem was an American historian, bibliographer and librarian. Swem worked at the Library of Congress and Virginia State Library, and for more than two decades was primary librarian at the College of William & Mary, where the Earl Gregg Swem Library was named in his honor.
John Taylor Hamilton was a businessman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a one-term Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 5th congressional district.
Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell was an American lawyer, politician from Illinois, and prominent Freemason. He was a lawyer and judge who served as a U.S. representative from Illinois from 1865–1869 and continued to practice law when he moved to Colorado in 1870 where he was appointed to compile the state's statutes. Bromwell was initiated into freemasonry in 1854, and he became the Grand Master of Illinois in 1864. When he moved to Colorado he became that state's first Honorary Grand Master. He developed the Free, and Accepted Architects, a new rite for Freemasonry which sought to teach its initiates the lost work of the craft embodied in Bromwell's Geometrical system. After his death, the Grand Lodge of Colorado published his work on the esoteric nature of Sacred geometry in the book Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry.
John Aloysius Green was born in the parish of Moore, County Roscommon, Ireland, 10 December 1844. His parents were John Green and Bridget (Kenny) Green. John A. Green came to Boston, Massachusetts, September 2, 1852, and attended the common schools. In 1860 he learned the monumental trade and worked at it for ten years. Later he worked in granite, sandstone and last of all limestone.
The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. The museum was founded in 1858 by instruction of the Iowa General Assembly as the Cabinet of Natural History. It is housed within Macbride Hall, located in the Pentacrest area of the university campus. The museum's collections contain around 140,000 objects, including approximately 31,000 birds, eggs, and nests, 5,000 mammal specimens, 41,000 insects, 44,000 other invertebrates, 6,000 archaeological specimens, and historical documents and images from the museum's history. The museum includes several galleries on Iowa's geological and cultural history, biological diversity, and environmental science, spanning four floors. Major research collections include the Kallam Collection of prehistoric stone tools, the Talbot and Jones Bird Collections, the Frank Russell Collection of Inuit and Native Arctic artifacts, and the Philippine Collection of ethnographic materials from the 1904 World's Fair.
The State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI), a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, serves as the official historical repository for the State of Iowa and also provides grants, public education, and outreach about Iowa history and archaeology. The SHSI maintains a museum, library, archives, and research center in Des Moines and a research library in Iowa City, as well as several historic sites in Iowa. It was founded in 1857 in Iowa City, where it was first affiliated with the University of Iowa. As the organization grew in size and collections, it became a separate state agency headquartered near the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.
The Grand Lodge of North Dakota, formally known as the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons of North Dakota, is the governing body of the largest group of masonic lodges in North Dakota. It follows the Anglo-American tradition of Freemasonry common in the United States.
The Iowa Masonic Library and Museum, located at 813 First Ave. SE, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, is one of the largest Masonic libraries in the world and incorporates at least three museum collections. The library was the first, worldwide, to have its own building. Its current building also houses the administrative offices for the Grand Lodge of Iowa, one of the governing bodies for Freemasonry in Iowa.
The Grant Wood Cultural District is a historic district in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa that was certified in 2010 by the Iowa State Historical Society.
Joseph Fort Newton (1880–1950) was an American Baptist minister.
George Henry Yewell was an American painter and etcher.
George Washington Ball was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Iowa. He served in the Iowa General Assembly as Representative of Johnson County and later as State Senator. He also served on the city council of Iowa City from 1881 to 1883, and was mayor of the city from 1905 to 1909.
Edwin N. Chapin was an American postmaster and newspaper publisher. An outspoken and fearless advocate, he was often in controversy, and on account of his aggressive and combative disposition, came to be called "Old Grizzly". Chapin was a strong character, prominent as a pioneer, alert in business, a vigorous, out-spoken, independent editor, welcoming and standing by whatever promised to benefit his State, county or city.
