by J. RANAE RAGEE

Daily Staff Writer

Do you desire something new? Does your cultural knowledge thirst for a change? Well, ISU has just what you’ve been looking for, and there are two added bonuses. One is that it’s absolutely free, and two, it’s located just a hop, skip and a jump away. That’s right, the Farm House museum is located on ISU’s campus.

The Farm House museum began in 1860 as a small, red brick building in the middle of Story County, on the nation’s first Morrill land-grant college: Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm. The museum is toured by 6,000 visitors each year.

The museum was originally a home for Iowa State College’s farm superintendents and later for deans. The house is a national historic landmark and has been restored and furbished with Victorian Era furnishing from 1860-1910.

Mary E. Atherly is the collections manager at University Museums and the associate curator at the Farm House museum who wrote the book, Farm House: College Farm to University Museum, which was released in early June.

Many will find this book fascinating, especially those history buffs that thirst for a newfound knowledge of some history located right under their noses.

In the book Atherly focuses on the people who lived and worked there and how their activity affected the evolution of Iowa State from its beginning as an agricultural model farm to a modern multipurpose university.

This book publishes the first significant research devoted to the people of the Farm House and to their social, cultural and educational impact on the house and on the university.

The book, Farm House, is richly illustrated with photographs, maps and line drawings. Early photos of the house and college campus bring to life scenes of unpaved roads and open prairie fields. Pictures of the residents, including many previously unpublished photos, enhance the details related to the personalities of those individuals who played a part in ISU’s history.

Check out the changing exhibits that are presented to encourage the study of different aspects of Victorian culture. Visitors are welcome during open hours, which are Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 4 p.m. For more information or for viewing hours, please call the University Museums office at 294-3342