1830s German Longcase Flötenuhr Clock

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's remarkable grandfather clock, a longcase Flötenuhr (flute or organ clock), was made in Germany circa 1832. The clock was donated to the library in 1919 by the estate of Alleen Langworthy Massey, a descendant of early settlers of Dubuque who prospered here in lead mining and business.

Rather than chimes, this grandfather clock has a barrel organ with bellows and wood pipes which produce delightful calliope-like music. The unique mechanism plays eight different songs, while the four animated figures at the top dance back and forth.

The grandfather clock is in working order and still keeps time, but to protect its fragile components it is not often wound or played. It was restored in 2014 by Behind The Times Clocks of Rockford, Illinois.

Watch and listen as the clock strikes twelve in this video:

The clock's wood pipes, pin barrel, and movement:

See more photos at Behind The Times Clocks' Facebook page.

Nutwood, Dubuque's Most Famous 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.

TBR Dubuque

There are so many exciting novels coming out in the next few weeks (Sep-Oct 2023), I thought I'd share some here, mostly as a way for me to keep track of what to read next. Cheers! ~Mike

The Fraud by Zadie Smith. September 5, 2023. In 1873 Victorian London, with the city mesmerized by the “Tichborne Trial,” wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claims he is the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title, Mrs. Eliza Touchet becomes determined to find out if he’s really who he says he is or if he’s a fraud.

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. September 5, 2023. What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it.

Wound by Oksana Vasyakina. September 5, 2023. The lyrical and deeply moving story of a young queer woman’s journey across Russia to inter her mother’s ashes and to understand her sexuality, femininity, and grief.

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles. September 12, 2023. After recovering from a traumatic head injury, John Chenneville discovers his beloved sister and her family were murdered during the end of the Civil War and embarks on an odyssey across the Reconstruction-era South seeking revenge.

Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang. September 26, 2023. A Chinese American chef who, lured to a decadent, enigmatic colony of the superrich in a near future in which food is disappearing, discovers the meaning of pleasure and the ethics of who gets to enjoy it, altering her life and, indirectly, the world.

America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien. October 24, 2023. A rollicking odyssey in which a bank robbery by a disgraced journalist sparks a cross-country chase through a nation corroded by delusion.

Absolution by Alice McDermott. October 31, 2023. Sixty years after they lived as wives of American servicemen in early 1960s Vietnam, two women reconnect and relive their shared experiences in Saigon.