By Jaimie Timm

Mower County Historical Society curator

Two new exhibits are coming to the Mower County Historical Society this August just in time for the fair. “Buggy Rides and Parlor Visits: A History of Courting” will be in the Rahilly Building.  The second new exhibit, “Mower Women on the Farm,” will be in a location yet to be determined.

“Buggy Rides and Parlor Visits” explores the history of courting beginning with the early colonial years through the Victorian Era of highly ritualized “calling,” the early 20th century and the rise of “dating,” and ending with the 1950s and 1960s when widespread courtship in the United States came to an end.  “Mower Women on the Farm” looks at the various roles women have filled on farms from keeping house and raising children to working in the fields and handling livestock.

We need your help to make these exhibits happen. We are looking for photographs and stories from past and present Mower Countians to share in each display.

These will help visitors make connections with local history.  Photographs should feature couples (or at least one member of a couple) who courted or dated  in Mower County or show women who lived and/or worked on farms in the county.

If you are interested in contributing to these exhibits, please contact Jaimie Timm, MCHS Curator, at the Mower County Historical Society.  Photographic prints can be donated to MCHS or can be scanned and returned.

Please consider sharing your photographs and stories with the historical society and help us fulfill our mission to “discover, collection, preserve, and disseminate knowledge” about Mower County.  New exhibits are just one way that we accomplish this and we look forward to sharing some of our local history with our visitors this summer.