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Hope for the
continuation of the History Center was raised in reading the encouraging
Feb. 5 Gazette editorial ‘‘History Center raises bigger questions.’’
The Center is grateful to
the many caring people and organizations that have supported it. Many have
trusted the center to professionally care for their artifacts.
Included in the History
Center collections are numerous old, rare photographs, maps, city directories,
etc. that aren’t found elsewhere.
Taped interviews of wellknown
people and people in various professions are available to the public to
take out at no cost.
Our History Center library,
with its free admission, has been called the best-kept secret in Cedar
Rapids. Files of old and current newspaper clippings on all subjects including
businesses, organizations, events, schools, etc. are available. We receive
inquiries from all over the United States. One Easterner tried many resources
to find information on Richard Pinney, who she claimed to be another Grant
Wood. She was pleased with how much information we sent. We sent another
lady a history of Cedar Rapids to use as background for a book she was
writing. Good public relations, right?
Children love the History
Center. Caring and professional people provide many enjoyable and educational
programs.
It would be a great loss
if such knowledgeable and dedicated staff as Mark Hunter, city historian,
and Carrie King, child educator, were dismissed. We’ve already lost some
cream off the top; maybe that’s where scrutiny should begin.
I believe the people of Linn
County, including my fellow History Center volunteers and those who control
the center’s expenditures, care enough about preserving its history to
keep the History Center doors open.
__________
Ruth Darling
Cedar Rapids