Showing posts with label Dubuque. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dubuque. Show all posts

Friday, January 5, 2024

Nutwood, Dubuque's Most Famous Horse

An old sepia tone engraving of a very sleek horse.

From Horse Education by Thomas J. Murray (1890) at HathiTrust:

On the adjoining page will be found a good likeness of the celebrated horse, Nutwood, of a still rising fame. The gentlemanly owners are Messers. H. L. and F. D. Stout, of the Highland Stock Farm, Dubuque, Iowa. Nutwood is of a chestnut color, 15.3 hands high; weighs 1,160 lbs., foaled May 1, 1870.

... Except to state bare recorded facts of what Nutwood is, little need be said. Individually he is excellent, of superior conformation, of good size, with remarkable substance combined with finish and quality. He has the best of legs, sound and clean, and good feet. He has an even, gentle temper, and is kind and intelligent in disposition.

Henry L. Stout (1814-1900) was a lumberman who made a large fortune on the Mississippi River in Dubuque. He raced and bred horses here with his son Frank D. Stout (1854-1927), who in 1901 donated the land, in memory of his father, where Carnegie-Stout Public Library was built.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Dubuque's Forgotten Gold

"There's gold in them thar' hills!"

Dubuque Iowa's Forgotten Gold by Peter Netzel is ready to check out from Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

What do you think? Is there any gold still buried on Kelly's Bluff?

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Tax Forms and Free Tax Preparation in Dubuque in 2024

Updated: January 5, 2024

Tax Forms & Printing at Carnegie-Stout Public Library

The Iowa Department of Revenue is not distributing paper tax instruction booklets through Carnegie-Stout Public Library this year, and the selection from the IRS is very limited.

Library staff can help you find tax forms and instructions on the Internet and print them for 10 cents per side of a sheet. For more info call Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Reference Desk.

Iowa Tax Forms

Iowa tax forms are available online at tax.iowa.gov/forms.

Help with Iowa forms and tax questions is available by calling 515-281-3114 or 800-367-3388.

Federal Tax Forms

Federal tax forms and instructions are available online at www.irs.gov/forms-instructions.

You can order free forms to be delivered to you by mail at www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/forms-and-publications-by-us-mail or by calling 800-829-3676.

Tax help is available by calling 800-829-1040. According to the IRS, live phone assistance is extremely limited at this time.

Free Tax Preparation in Dubuque

HACAP (Hawkeye Area Community Action Program) at hacap.org/taxes provides free and confidential tax preparation for individuals with low to moderate incomes. For details, please call HACAP in Dubuque at 563-556-5130 or send an email to taxes@hacap.org.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Book Press

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Book Press

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's book press appears to be about 120 years old.

Screw presses are used for bookbinding. They help keep the covers of books flat and in place while the glue is drying. Cast iron presses like this one were made in the early 1900s.

When Carnegie-Stout opened on October 20, 1902, the Dubuque Cabinet Makers Association, a furniture company in business from 1867 to 1909, was located at 10th and Main Streets.

Whether donated or sold to the library, this press sure has been around for a long time! Do you think it will still be here in another 120 years?


Saturday, March 20, 2021

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Thanks to a gift from the Clive W. and Mona M. Lacy Trust and a partnership with the Telegraph Herald, the Library now hosts a digital archive of the Telegraph Herald newspaper. Browse and search over fifty-seven thousand editions of the Telegraph Herald spanning almost two-hundred years. You may not even need a library card!

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive?

In-Person Visitors

All in-person visitors may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive inside Carnegie-Stout Public Library. No library card is needed. Printing is 10 cents per page, and help is available at the 2nd Floor Reference Desk.

Dubuque Residents

Dubuque city residents may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online by clicking on Browse the Archive and then entering the full number on the back of your library card with no spaces, and your PIN, which should be the last four digits of your phone number. If these numbers do not work, or if you do not have a library card, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Iowa Residents

Other Iowa residents may be eligible for a free Open Access library card which should enable you to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For details, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Non-Residents

If you live outside of Iowa, you can purchase a non-resident card to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For costs and more details, see Get A Card, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Free, No-Card Option

Another option is to try the free Dubuque Newspapers in Google News Archive. While this option does not support keyword searches, it is very handy for browsing by date, and it does not require a library card. For tips and tricks, see How to Find Dubuque Obituaries Online.

Also, the State Historical Society of Iowa provides free access to Iowa and Dubuque newspapers in NewspaperARCHIVE.com. Go to Digital Resources and then click on "NewspaperArchives Iowa Database." At that page, use "Go to Advanced Search" to narrow searches to Dubuque.

Reference Help

If you cannot find what you are looking for, our reference librarians at yourlibrarian@carnegiestout.org may be able to provide further assistance, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Reference Desk.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

FY21 Library Budget Presentation Video

FY21 Budget Presentation

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council last evening about the Library's Fiscal Year 2021 budget recommendations.

Here's a link to the video of Susan's presentation. For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2021 Budget page.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

FY20 Library Budget Presentation Video

FY20 Budget Presentation

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council last evening about the Library's Fiscal Year 2020 budget recommendations.

Here's a link to the video of Susan's presentation. For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2020 Budget page.

Friday, February 9, 2018

FY19 Library Budget Presentation Video

FY19 Library Budget Presentation Video

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council last evening about the Library's Fiscal Year 2019 budget recommendations.

Here's a link to the video of Susan's presentation. For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2019 Budget.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

FY18 Library Budget Presentation Video

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council last evening about the Library's Fiscal Year 2018 budget recommendations. Here's the video:


For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2018 Budget.


Friday, March 18, 2016

Victorian Survival is Just Weird

I enjoyed the article "125 years of a LEGACY: Local artists, aficionados celebrate Grant Wood" by Tia Carol Jones in yesterday’s Telegraph Herald. Here's some more info.

On February 18, 1942, a few days after Grant Wood died, the TH described how years earlier the Carnegie-Stout Public Library Board purchased The Appraisal for $350 and Victorian Survival for $800.

At that time in 1934, the article says, the library board also had the opportunity to purchase Wood's satirical painting, Daughters of Revolution, but they decided it was too controversial, and actor Edward G. Robinson ended up buying it.

Daughters of Revolution

While The Appraisal below doesn't seem controversial, the library board might not have known that the woman holding the chicken in the painting was actually a man, Cedar Rapids gallery director Ed Rowan.

The Appraisal
 Ed Rowan

The other painting, Victorian Survival, was one of Grant Wood's favorites. He would only sell it to the library board if they agreed in advance to lend it back to him for future exhibitions. Thankfully, they agreed.

 Victorian Survival

There are different theories about Victorian Survival. The main one seems to be that the old-fashioned lady resents the new-fangled telephone. But could it be the other way around? Is she trying to hide her fondness for it?

Art professor R. Tripp Evans puts it this way in his 2010 biography of Grant Wood:
Lying in shadow behind Aunt Tillie, whose concealed right hand itself indicates a note of treachery, the telephone is more accomplice than opponent--an offstage voice, whispering something salacious (and apparently mortifying) into Aunt Tillie's overscaled ear.
I agree with Tim Olson's assessment, "Victorian Survival is just weird." Weird and cool! And we're so lucky to have it in Dubuque!

~Mike, Adult Services

---

Note:

Grant Wood visited Dubuque several times. Here's an announcement of one visit from the TH arts column, "'Mid Pallettes and Clefs," from March 6, 1932:

'Mid Pallettes and Clefs,” Telegraph Herald, March 6, 1932

I wonder if this irregular column, which sometimes was signed by "Be-Be," might have been written by John Mulgrew, the original "Jazbo of Old Dubuque."

Thursday, February 11, 2016

FY17 Library Budget Presentation Video

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council last evening about the Library's Fiscal Year 2017 budget recommendations. Here's the video:


For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2017 Budget.

Colorful, pocket-sized copies of Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Annual Report are available for free at the library.


Friday, October 30, 2015

Haunting Library Architecture


Andrew Carnegie is a very, very rarely seen ghost, what with his having over 2,500 libraries to haunt. So, his rotunda appearance is really quite exceptional.



Happy Halloween from Carnegie-Stout Public Library!

Thursday, August 20, 2015

ThrowbackThursday The Cholera

"The health of the city of Dubuque was never better. While neighboring cities have been visited by that enemy of our race, the Cholera, Dubuque, with the exception of two or three strangers who died of it, has thus far escaped unharmed."
July 22, 1854

"The health of our city still continues excellent - with the exception of occasionally a case of Bilious derangement, our citizens are enjoying absolute immunity from sickness and pain."
July 29.1854

"There have been a few cases of Cholera in Dubuque, confined principally, to the floating population - and some few have died. To our knowledge there has been no panic or excitement whatever in regard to it, and we have not heard of any of our citizens flying from it - if any have done so, we can assure them, that they can, with perfect safety, return to the bosoms of their anxious families, and expectant friends, as there has not been a case of Cholera in Dubuque for several days past. Our friends at Hazel Green, who have been thrown into such a state of excitement about the ravages of Cholera in Dubuque, may rely upon the truth of our statement as avoe given."
August 18, 1854
Dubuque Weekly Observer, July 29, 1854
In 1854, 1424 people died of cholera in Chicago, and in fact, thousands would die across the nation during the nineteenth century cholera pandemicsCholera is a bacterial infection that causes intestinal distress and can lead to death from dehydration or other complications. Over the centuries it has killed millions of people throughout the world, and is still a significant danger in many parts of the world today. Thousands have died from cholera infections in Haiti since the earthquake in 2010.

You can read more about the history of cholera and its impact on the world in The Ghost Map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world by Steven Johnson. Johnson tells the story of Dr. John Snow whose research led to our modern understanding of how cholera and other diseases spread, and what we can do to help stop them from becoming devastating outbreaks.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Throwback Thursday "Our Dubuque is hard to beat in the picture line."

Dubuque Weekly Observer, October 27, 1854

We are happy to learn that our fellow townsman, McKinney, the Daguerreotypist took the first premium at the State Fair held last week at Fairfield. His specimens having been pronounced by the Judges the best they had ever seen. Our Dubuque is hard to beat.
November 3, 1854

Dubuque Daily Observer, November 3, 1854 

The first Iowa State Fair was in October of 1854 in Fairfield, Iowa. You can read more about the history of Iowa State Fair on the official website. The 161st Iowa State Fair begins today in Des Moines, and lasts until the 23rd. If you can't make it to Des Moines this year, check out some of our books on the State Fair for readers of all ages.
If you're interested in learning more about the history of photography and daguerreotypes, check out Capturing the Light: the birth of photography, a true story of genius and rivalry by Roger Watson and Helen Rappaport.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

ThrowbackThursday Centennial Flood

“The Centennial will long be remembered in Dubuque, not for the magnificence of the daytime display, but for the dark tragic history of the night. The day was combatively pleasant, but coming on evening suspicious electricity laden clouds began to fleck the north western heaven, which gathered with mumbling and grumbling which was continued until after ten o’clock when the rain commenced to descend, apparently increasing in quantity with the passing hours.”

"The Great Flood of 1876"
Dubuque Daily Times
Dubuque, Iowa
Thursday Morning July 5, 1876
Read the whole article online



Our microfilm collection is missing the July 5th-7th issues of The Daily Herald, but the front page of the July 8th issue included this update on the Centennial Flood. Other breaking news on July 8, 1876: the defeat of General Custer at Little Bighorn or "Custer's Last Stand." The battle itself occurred on June 25th and 26th. click the article on the right to see a larger image.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Throwback Thursday: 1965 Dubuque County Fair

The Dubuque County Fair is happening right now at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds.  Here is the entertainment line-up from 50 years ago:

Lassie (needs no further introduction)
Tiu Troupe (from the Ginny Tiu Show)
Johnny Tolitson, recording star

See the full lineup from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald newspaper.  August 1, 1965, page 5.




Do you love State and County fairs but just don't have time to attend?

In State Fair a small-town family travels to the State Fair.  The father is looking for the blue ribbon for his prize hog, Blue Boy, mom is looking for glory in her cooking, and the kids are looking for love. DVD includes the original 1945 version and the 1962 remake. 

NPR Road Trips takes you to fairs all across the country with Fairs and Festivals: Stories that take you away. (60 minute audio CD)

Butter is a dramedy starring Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell.  When long-reigning champion butter sculptor Bob is forced to step down, his zealous wife Laura enters the competition herself, to fight for their status as butter royalty. A win seems guaranteed until a formidable contender emerges: a 10-year-old Destiny, an African-American foster child of local couple Julie and Ethan. Suddenly, it's anybody's game and Laura will do anything to win, even if it means resorting to sabotage and seducing her foolish ex-boyfriend Boyd as a co-conspirator.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

FY16 Library Budget Presentation Video

Carnegie-Stout Public Library Director Susan Henricks gave a presentation to the Dubuque City Council this week about the Library's Fiscal Year 2016 budget recommendations. Here's the video:

For more information, see the City of Dubuque's Fiscal Year 2016 Budget.

Copies of Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Annual Report are available for free at the library. This year's report is in the form of an attractive calendar with historical photos, facts and figures, and upcoming library events.


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Little Free Libraries in Dubuque Map

DECEMBER 2020 UPDATE:
The map below is no longer maintained. Try the official Little Free Library World Map for current info.



Full-screen map

The Dubuque Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and the AmeriCorps VISTA program recently set up Little Free Libraries at five of Dubuque's six fire stations. These join several other Little Free Libraries which already exist throughout Dubuque.

Carnegie-Stout Public Library supports these initiatives and will furnish books to the Little Free Libraries at the fire stations if inventory runs low.

What are Little Free Libraries?

From the City of Dubuque: "A Little Free Library, in its most basic form, is a small box that houses free books for anyone to take and exchange at any time. Returns and/or exchanges are not mandatory, but encouraged. Dubuque’s Little Free Libraries are open to everyone regardless of income level, age, or residence. Non-residents are welcome to participate." For more information, see Little Free Library, Ltd.

For additions or corrections to this map, please leave comments below.

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Varsity Was the Smallest

One of the laundromats near Loras College used to be a movie theater. Rich and Kay Manternach managed that theater, the Varsity at 1111 Loras Boulevard, during the 1950s.
The Varsity movie theater circa 1954. Photo contributed by Rich and Kay Manternach.
The Varsity movie theater circa 1954. Photo contributed by Rich and Kay Manternach.
Rich says, “Ray Duttle was the guy who originally put up the buildings on Loras, a theater and a grocery store.”

“My father, Gus Manternach, had a grocery store on Locust Street. He bought the new building on Loras from Ray Duttle, and opened Manternach’s Market.”

“Paul Weitz bought the theater. Weitz ran it for a while, but then sold it to my dad for about $14,000.”

“A man named O’Rourke, I can’t remember his first name, leased the theater from my dad. O’Rourke had a fire in the late 1940s, and he decided to get out of the movie business, so he subleased the Varsity to me.”

“That sublease from O’Rourke was kind of a thorn in my side,” Rich says. “I could have gotten a better deal from my dad. The Varsity had been completely renovated after the fire, though. It had a new screen, new drapes, and fresh paint.”

“I was at Loras College on the G.I. Bill around that time, from ‘48 to ‘52. I majored in economics with a minor in accounting. Since I was getting into the movie business, my thesis at Loras was The Monopolistic Practices of the Movie Industry.”

“You see, all the big movie theaters in Dubuque, like the Strand, Avon, and Grand, were owned by one person,” Rich says. “The smaller theaters, like the State, RKO Orpheum, and the Capitol on the north end, were owned individually.”

Kay says, “The Varsity was the smallest.”

"Well, wasn’t the Capitol about the same size as the Varsity, Kay?” asks Rich. “Up by your neighborhood by 22nd and Central, on the corner where Hartig's is?”

Kay says, "I thought the Capitol was a little bigger, but I could be wrong."

Rich says, “The Varsity had 205 seats. When you first walked into the theater, we had a box office up front, a popcorn machine, and there were steps up to the projection room. Inside, the seats sloped down toward the screen, which was all the way in the back.”

“Tickets were 14 cents for a child and 40 cents for an adult," Rich says.

Kay says, "The Varsity only ran evening movies. The only matinees were Saturdays and Sundays. We were closed on Wednesday nights."

"We had two changes of movies each week,” Rich explains. “Movies would run for three days, usually one main feature and a cartoon, maybe short subjects and previews of coming attractions.”

“They were all second-run films, sometimes the third and fourth run, because there were so many theaters in Dubuque,” Rich says.

“We had From Here to Eternity, with Ernest Borgnine and Frank Sinatra and . . . who was that guy who died, Montgomery Clift?” asks Rich.

Kay says, “Lana Turner in The Bad and the Beautiful, I think that was the first movie we ran. That was a big hit.”

"And Frankenstein was a big movie, a big draw.” Kay says. “One Halloween we paid someone to dress up as Frankenstein, but we hadn't advertised it. When the time came, Rich lowered the lights, and Frankenstein came down the middle aisle, and the people shrank toward the walls. I remember that."

Rich laughs, "Since Kay is younger than me, she remembers quite a bit!"

Rich and Kay Manternach. Photo by Michael May.
Rich and Kay Manternach. Photo by Michael May.
Kay says, “Gregory Peck and To Kill a Mockingbird. James Cagney was popular, and we had a couple of his movies. There were a lot of musicals, which they don't have today."

Rich says, "I liked The Three Stooges. Kay didn't like them, but they were so crazy!"

Kay says, "Oh, you know what else was popular? The cowboy movies. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. I remember those."

Rich says, "I know one thing that kept people coming back. The Strand was noted for serials. They'd show The Lone Ranger for 15 minutes, and then the following week they’d have the next episode.”

“They'd get all the kids in there on Saturday afternoons. Their mothers would give them 15 or 20 cents to go away, to go to the movies down at the Strand. Kids from all over wanted to go.”

“The cartoons were good back then, too. Bugs Bunny and, uh . . . ." Rich looks at Kay.

Kay says, "Road Runner."

Rich says, "Popeye, you know. They were good back then. I loved 'em.”

"Cartoons and features were separate,” Rich continues. “Our distributor was out of Des Moines. They'd have a salesman who'd come around, and he'd want to sell you the films.”

“If it was The Lone Ranger or something, it'd be $12.50, or maybe $15 for a three-day showing. Higher-grossing movies would be around $17.”

“If it was something like Gone with the Wind or From Here to Eternity, they put it in on a percentage basis, like 20% or 35% of the gross,” Rich says.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
“To keep you honest on that, they'd take the number off of your ticket stock. They had a key to the theater, and they'd come in and drop off the reels in steel cases with handles.”

“Long films would have four or five reels, in 35 mm. We had two projection booths. The projectors were Simplex. You had to switch reels over with a pedal on the floor,” Rich says.

“As the film would progress near the end, there'd be a dot on the right hand corner, and that was when you'd start the other reel going. When the second dot came, you'd hit the pedal, and that switched you over to the other machine.”

“If the film broke, you'd pull the reel out and restart it on another reel. When you got through, you'd take that over and splice it with glue. They had a splicing machine, and you'd just glue it up there and put it back in, and it didn't delay the movie.”

“Simplex projectors were popular,” Rich says. “They had carbon-arc lamps. You had to put the carbons into them and they were self-fed. I don't think they use those, anymore.”

"I did everything upstairs.” Rich says. “I was in the projection room most of the time. They had a buzzer downstairs in case of trouble. Once in a while Kay would say I dozed off."

Kay says, "He'd fall asleep and the screen would go dark, and the buzzer wouldn't wake him up. We had a broom downstairs, and I’d take the broom handle and bang on the ceiling.”

"I worked full-time in an office after I graduated in ‘52,” Kay says, “but I'd go up to the Varsity at night and sell tickets for Rich, because I was free help."

Rich says, “I'd give her popcorn, but no money.”

Kay says, “Yeah, he didn't pay me.”

“Before the Varsity, Kay worked at the RKO Orpheum, where Five Flags is now.” Rich says, laughing. “She used to get me in free!"

“I worked at the Orpheum for about a year and a half when I was a kid,” Kay explains. "I was 15. I lied about my age to get the job. We wore uniforms. I was an usher.”

“It was fun,” Kay says. “A big deal. 40 cents an hour. We got two free passes a week and all the popcorn you could eat, if you saved the original box.”

“My sister Phyllis helped me at the Varsity, too,” Rich says. “Phyllis was held up at gunpoint one night when she was working as cashier.”

Rich pulls out an old newspaper clipping about the robbery. “They got away with $65. The police never caught them.”

Kay says, "The Varsity was a good family theater. We had a good clientele. A lot of youngsters."

"We never had any controversial films,” Rich says. “Dubuque was a very Catholic town at that time."

"I can remember a lot of the guys,” Rich says, “guys I went to high school with. There was one guy, I won't mention his name, he used to come down . . ."

Kay says, "Don't say his name. He’s very well known, today."

Rich continues, "He would sneak in after they closed the box office. I'd go down and politely ask him to leave, because, you know, he had money. I'd see him up at Timmerman's. He'd come up and pat me on the back, and we were still good friends."

“Another thing,” Rich says, "we never had central air. Back then that was not uncommon. When I grew up my folks just had a window unit on Alta Vista, and Kay's house never had it.”

“When we finally put air conditioning in at the Varsity, that was a big plus on hot summer nights. Everything is changed, now,” Rich says.

Kay says, “Yeah, we had a lot of traffic, but it got to the point where TV just killed the neighborhood theaters.”

“A franchise called Jerrold’s brought cable TV to Dubuque in the late ‘50s, and they started robbing the picture attendance,” Kay says. “We had to close the Varsity soon after, because we really couldn't make ends meet.”

“A lot of people started going to Cinema Center on the west end. Oh my God, that was a beautiful theater!” Rich says. “Both of my kids worked there."

"I went to work for Rainbo Oil Company. I worked in the office for them for a couple or three years, and then I managed a Super Station up there on 20th and Elm,” Rich says.

“Then Rainbo sold that property and it became a Pizza Hut, so I worked for a company out of Des Moines. I was in sales for most of my time.”

The Varsity laundromat at 1111 Loras Boulevard in Dubuque.
The Varsity laundromat at 1111 Loras Boulevard in Dubuque.
“My father’s market stayed open into the ‘60s, and he turned the Varsity into the laundromat,” Rich says.

"When they put the laundromat in, they had to raise the floor, you see, because it was sloped. They put in some side windows. The upstairs stuff was taken out, the Simplex projectors, and somebody must have bought them, but I don't know.”

“I don't know,” Rich says again. “Where were we when they did that, honey?”

Kay shrugs.

“We were probably cryin’ the blues,” Rich says, laughing.

Michael May is a librarian at Carnegie-Stout Public Library where he shows free movies and selects titles for the Blu-ray and DVD collections. His email address is mmay@dubuque.lib.ia.us.

Thanks to Bryce Parks at Dubuque365.com for including this article in the April 24--May 7, 2014 issue of 365ink.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Architecture Days Scavenger Hunt: The Librarian Way

I love the Architecture Days Scavenger Hunt. And I am terrible at it.

If you're not familiar, Architecture Days takes place every April. If you've got any interest in architecture or local history, there are a lot of things to look forward to. You can see the whole list on the Architecture Days page I linked above (and I'll give a special plug to the movie we're showing here at C-SPL).

I always get particularly excited about the scavenger hunt. Dubuque Main Street publishes a set of close-up photos of local buildings and all you have to do is identify them. Simple, right? I grew up here. I've been around these building all my life. They even provide a map showing the area from which they selected buildings. But every year I pull up the sheet of photos and realize that I don't recognize any of them. Apparently, I don't really pay attention to the buildings around me.

Luckily, I'm a librarian. I may not know the answers on this scavenger hunt, but I know how to find them!
(A small interjection: I realize I could just drive/bike/walk around looking for the buildings in the pictures. This seemed like more fun to me. That's why I'm a librarian.)

The theme of Architecture Days this year is Sacred Spaces. Looking at the photos, it seems that all the buildings are churches. So a good first step would be a list of all the churches in the given area. Simple!

The library subscribes to a database called ReferenceUSA. It's basically the fanciest phone book you've ever seen. You can get to it off of our website. Anyone can use it inside the library, and Dubuque residents can use it from home. To start looking for churches in ReferenceUSA, I want to look under U.S. Businesses. I'm trying to do something a little more complicated than just looking for a business by name, so I'll click Custom Search.


A custom search lets me build a search combining several different factors. In this case, I want to look for a specific business type in a specific area. For the type of business, I'll use Keyword SIC/NAICS. SIC and NAICS codes are business classifications defined by the government. We don't have to worry about the specifics, I'm just going to find the code for churches (866107 -- memorize it and impress people at dinner parties!).


Next I need to narrow things down geographically. I've got a lot of options for  a geographic search. It would be simple to just set the city to Dubuque, but that's not quite specific enough. Did you notice the box on the left side of the screen that gives a number for Record Count? As I add new facets to my search, that number changes to show how many businesses match my search. It shows 68 churches in the city of Dubuque, which is a lot more than I want to look at. Besides, if I just searched by city I wouldn't get to use my favorite part of ReferenceUSA:



Map Based Search! In the map interface, I can just draw a shape on the map and search inside it. We've got a few options here. We could select a point and search within a given radius from it. We could map out a driving route and search the businesses along those roads. But for this we want to draw a custom shape. I tried not to get too carried away trying to mark exactly the boundaries from Dubuque Main Street's map. When I was done, ReferenceUSA told me there were 19 churches in the area I selected and gave me a list of their names and addresses.

With a short list and all their addresses, I could certainly go look at all these buildings in person. But the Internet and I have come so far already, why give up on a good thing? Besides, it looks like it might rain. So how can I see all these churches without going outside?




Have you played with Google Street View? Google takes hundreds of photos, up and down all the streets in a town, and then stitches them together into virtual streets. You can essentially walk around town looking at buildings from several angles. Perfect!

I could go to Google Maps and search for each item on my list in order to Street View them, but I've got an idea save myself from jumping back and forth from list to map. I can download my list from ReferenceUSA as either a text file or an Excel spreadsheet. Once I've downloaded the spreadsheet and deleted everything but the addresses, I can paste them to BatchGeo.com.  BatchGeo takes lists of addresses and makes custom Google maps, with all the addresses marked with pins.


On my custom map, I can drag the little orange peg-man to each pin to have a look at the building and compare it to the scavenger hunt photos.


First up, I'll have a look at the pin way at the south of the group, St. Raphael's Cathedral. Some of those windows look awfully familiar . . . .


Architecture Days runs April 7-12. Scavenger hunt entries are due to the Dubuque Main Street office at 1069 Main Street by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16.

Good hunting!