Businesses pay for advertisements to inform consumers and persuade them to buy products - but years later, those same advertisements are like a time capsule of a community. Ads show how a business develops, how commerce changes, and how the economy waxes and wanes as years go by. The ads reproduced in this book were originally published in city directories listing residents and businesses in Ottumwa, Iowa, and show the development of a community through 90 years of advertising.

Ottumwa, Iowa has been a river town from the moment settlers chose the spot along the banks of the Des Moines River in 1844. Islands come and go; water levels rise and fall; floods sweep through; bridges are built, taken down, and rebuilt. The river changes and even moves, but it continues to provide water, food, and fun, supporting industry and transportation - and remaining the heart of the community. Illustrations courtesy of The Lemberger Collection. For more information about the collection, which has been called the largest and best-documented privately-owned photography collection in...

When residents of Wapello County, Iowa, mention Chief Wapello, sometimes they mean the Native American who is the county's namesake - chief of the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes and the successor of Chief Black Hawk of Black Hawk War fame. And sometimes they mean the sheet-copper statue of a Native American which stands atop the roof of the Wapello County Courthouse. Though he's affectionately called Chief Wapello, the statue wears a war bonnet of a sort that the peace-loving chief of the Sac and Fox would never have donned. Chief Wapello: The Man, The Leader, The Statue looks at the...