Iowa History Journal

12/19/2025

Last minute shopping that’s easy, affordable and meaningful! 🎅🏻🎄🎁

* A subscription to Iowa History Journal (select “Plus current issue” to start with Jan/Feb 2026 issue)

* Current issue about Christmas in Iowa on newsstands at B&N, Hy-Vee, Walgreens, Natural Grocers, Beaverdale Books, Whole Foods (WDM) and select Walmart, Fleet Farm, Hy-Vee Drug stores.

iowahistoryjournal.com or (515) 490-7325

12/18/2025

Thank you subscribers for your business during the holiday season! The Jan/Feb 2026 issue should be in your mailbox by today and yesterday we mailed gift orders to guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. We appreciate your support of our small, family-owned business.

If you are not a subscriber, or you are still looking for a holiday gift for someone who “has everything,” please consider us. We are the only statewide, popular publication devoted to our state’s fascinating history. Lest you think that history is about the memorization of dates, names and events, guess again. It is a people’s history ... our history.

By subscribing to IHJ you’re not only supporting a family and a dream, but local journalism, our local economy, and the preservation of our state’s history. It’s a worthwhile, nominal investment for less than $20.

To start with the Jan/Feb issue select “plus current issue.” Otherwise your subscription will start with our March/April issue.

Pick up our Nov/Dec issue with Santa on the cover on newsstands at Barnes & Noble, Hy-Vee, Beaverdale Books, Books A Million, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods (WDM) and select Fleet Farm, Walmart, Walgreens and Hy-Vee Drug stores. It makes a great stocking stuffer. 🎅🏻

Better yet, subscribe! iowahistoryjournal.com or (515) 490-7325

Thank you for your consideration. Happy holidays! 🎄

12/17/2025

Become a member of the State Historical Society of Iowa Curator's Circle and get a FREE subscription to Iowa History Journal! 🎁🎄

SHSI Membership: The Gift That Makes History 🎁📜
Not sure what to get the person who has everything? Give them something truly meaningful: a stake in Iowa’s past and future 🌟. A membership with the State Historical Society of Iowa comes with great benefits, but the best one is knowing your gift helps preserve and share Iowa’s rich heritage for generations to come 🕰️💛.

Give the gift of history this season and support the stories that shape us. Learn more: https://history.iowa.gov/support/memberships

12/15/2025

OTD: Dec. 15. 1944, Glenn Miller’s plane goes missing over the English Channel during World War II.

Clarinda native Glenn Miller, who scored more No. 1 records and Top 10 hits than either Elvis Presley or The Beatles, was America’s No. 1 bandleader from 1939 to 1942 before he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces to serve our nation during World War II and tragically died in a plane crash.

On March 1, 1904, Alton Glenn Miller was born in the southwestern Iowa town of Clarinda. Although his parents would move along and raise him in Nebraska, Missouri and eventually Colorado, the man who became one of the foremost musical celebrities of the 20th century would always consider himself a proud Iowa native … as would idolizing media publicity. Miller fondly remembered Page and Montgomery counties as “cousin country,” and for good reason. Evidence of Miller’s cousins remains to this day in Clarinda and Red Oak.

Our in-depth, two-part 2024 series about the icon’s life and legacy, written by author and historian of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society & Museum in Clarinda Dennis M. Spragg, chronicles Miller’s illustrious career and debunks conspiracies regarding his mysterious death.

Copies remain at iowahistoryjournal.com

12/15/2025

IHJ 2025 Quiz, Week 50: German immigrants brought their Christmas traditions to Iowa including Sankt Nikolaus, baked goods and tree pyramids. A large German settlement comprising seven villages started in the 1830s in Eastern Iowa and has been preserved for historical purposes and as a tourist destination. What is its name?

Find the answer in the Nov/Dec issue of Iowa History Journal sold at Barnes & Noble, Hy-Vee, Beaverdale Books, Books-A-Million, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods (WDM) and select Walmart, Mills Fleet Farm, Walgreens and Hy-Vee Drug stores, or iowahistoryjournal.com. A subscription to IHJ makes a great gift during the holidays! Add $2 for “current issue” to receive the Jan/Feb issue.

12/15/2025

Hanukkah, one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays, began tonight. Known as the festival of lights, Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday in the Jewish faith marked by the nightly lighting of candles.

Pictured in this undated Des Moines Register newspaper clipping is the Elmets family from Des Moines. Craig Elmets, 10, and the oldest son of Dr. Harry B. Elmets, is seen lighting a candle in the Chanukah celebration, or menorah. An additional candle is lighted each night during the eight-day festival.

Photo courtesy Iowa Jewish Historical Society

12/13/2025

The weather outside is frightful 🥶❄️
But our online shopping is delightful! 😀🎁
Select "Plus current issue" to get Jan/Feb by Christmas 🎅🎄
iowahistoryjournal.com

12/12/2025

Iowa State University sweeps University of Iowa in four major sports for first time in school history: football, wrestling, mens and women's basketball. (Photo courtesy of CycloneFanatic)

12/12/2025

Branstad receives Iowa Award

Terry Branstad, former Iowa governor and U.S. ambassador to China, received the Iowa Award yesterday from Governor Kim Reynolds during a ceremony held at the Iowa Capitol. The Iowa Award is the state’s highest civilian award and Branstad is the 25th recipient of it.

Reynolds presented Branstad, 79, with the Iowa Award for his “incredible lifetime of service.” She and other elected officials, government leaders and dignitaries praised the former governor for his decades of public service during the ceremony. Branstad is the longest-serving governor in U.S. history (1983-1999 and 2011-2017). He also served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives and one term as the 40th lieutenant governor of Iowa. From 2017 to 2020 he served as the U.S. ambassador to China.

In addition to his career in politics, the Leland native served as president of Des Moines University (2003-2009) and president of the World Food Prize Foundation (2023-2025).

During the ceremony a sign was unveiled revealing that a 36-mile stretch of Iowa Highway 9 will be dedicated to Branstad. The midpoint of the dedicated highway is in Leland.

The Iowa Award was created as the result of the 1946 Iowa Centennial Celebration. In 1951 the first Iowa Award was given to President Herbert Hoover. Over the years, other distinguished Iowans who have received the award include Nobel Peace Price winner Norman Borlaug, educator and physicist James Van Allen, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President Henry Wallace, artist Grant Wood, Gov. Robert D. Ray and opera singer Simon Estes, as well as those who have connections to Iowa, such as agricultural scientist George Washington Carver.

(Photos courtesy of Gov. Kim Reynolds page)

12/11/2025

The second weekend Christkindlmarket Des Moines starts today!
You've seen their ad in IHJ, now go!

Help us celebrate the 10th Christkindlmarket Des Moines by joining us at Principal Park Dec 11 - 14! Since this cultural experience began in 2016, you've helped us grow to become the 2nd largest festival of its kind in the U.S. based on average daily attendance!

FB Event: https://bit.ly/4nJ1pcN

12/10/2025

Please join us in expressing heartfelt condolences and sympathy to our good friend, Lou Sipolt Jr., whose wife, Kathy, died yesterday. As so many of our readers know, Lou is the host of Iowa Live and he has been a longtime supporter of IHJ. Our thoughts and prayers are with Lou and his family. 😔🙏

12/10/2025

Popular music pianist Roger Williams, who had 22 hit singles including 1955's "Autumn Leaves," released "Christmas Time" in 1959.

Williams was born in 1924 in Omaha. His family moved to Des Moines before his first birthday. He first played the piano at age three. In high school he became interested in boxing, mainly at his father's insistence, and returned to music only after breaking his nose several times and sustaining several other injuries. As a young man, Williams played organ music in his father's St. John's Lutheran Church in Des Moines and piano at the supper club, Babe's Restaurant.

Williams majored in piano at Drake University in Des Moines, where he began developing a style that was a fusion of jazz, classical, and pop, but was expelled for playing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in the practice room in violation of the school's classical-music-only policy. He entered the U.S. Navy and served in World War II. While still in the Navy he won the middleweight boxing championship at his base in Idaho and earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in 1950. Afterward, Williams re-enrolled at Drake, where he earned his master's degree in music in 1951. He then moved to New York City to attend Juilliard. The rest, as they say, is history.