Nights at the Museum Summer 2023 Schedule

Tuesday, June 20 @ 6:30 P.M. | Dr. Robert Schoone-Jongen
Hollanders crossed the Atlantic Ocean by the thousands during the years 1850-1914. The ships that carried them offered three classes: the luxurious first class, the comfortable second class, and the legendary steerage class. We will look at three people who sailed in these ships, one in each class, to get a handle on what it meant to be an immigrant during the era.
Dr. Robert Schoone-Jongen is Emeritus Professor of History at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His research and writing has focused on Dutch immigration to the United States (1850-1914). He is a graduate of Calvin College, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Delaware. For twenty-six years he taught at Southwest Minnesota Christian High School.

Tuesday, July 11 @ 6:30 P.M. | Reader’s Theatre with Karen Bohm Barker & Jeff Barker | Mrs. Ripley’s Visit

Things aren’t well at Uncle Ripley’s. Ma tells her husband she doesn’t care what he says, she’s going back East for a visit. He says no. She says yes. And so it goes in this hilarious adaptation of an old Hamlin Garland tale, “Mrs. Ripley’s Visit,” set right here in rural Iowa, 150 years ago.

Karen Bohm Barker and Jeff Barker, Emeritus Professors of Theatre, taught at Northwestern for over 30 years, impacting countless students. In their retirement, they are building a home—Barnabury—on Karen’s family farm in Illinois. Jeff is writing a book on parables, and they teach a Doctor of Ministry cohort at Western Theological Seminary.

 ~  ~ ~ 

Tuesday, Aug. 15 @ 6:30 P.M. | Anita Bomgaars | The Spirit Lake Massacre – Resisters/Adopters/Adapters

The 1850’s frontier of northwest Iowa contained people groups who were adopters, adapters and resisters to the inevitable change coming to the region. In a continuation of the Spirit Lake Massacre story, we will be focusing how all three of these personality types added to the tensions of a forever transfigured culture.

Bomgaars currently serves as President of the Friends of the Abbie Gardner Cabin Historic Site. She is involved in the restoration of the historic site’s existing facilities and monuments, working with the State of Iowa to preserve the legacy of Abbie Gardner, the early NW Iowa settlers, and the displaced indigenous people of our region. 

 ~  ~ ~ 

Tuesday, Sept. 19 @ 6:30 P.M. | Sara Huyser | Over the Hill: the History of the Sioux County Poor Farm 

Learn about the history of the Sioux County poor farm, the “inmates” who lived there, and the important role it played as an experimental farm.

Huyser is a librarian at Northwestern College and serves as Vice President for the museum. She earned a masters of American History with museum studies from the University of Iowa. Huyser has worked for the Medical Museum at the University of Iowa and the medical library archives at the University of Virginia. In 2022 she completed her MLIS with a concentration in archival studies from Emporia State University. 

 ~  ~ ~