The Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit

The Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit at the Drake Community Library in Grinnell

Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit

The Ruth Suckow Memorial Association, with the support of Humanities Iowa, is pleased to announce the creation of a Traveling Exhibit celebrating the life and work of Iowa novelist and short story writer Ruth Suckow who lived from 1892 to 1960. 

We launched the Traveling Exhibit on January 1, 2024, as part of the Centennial Celebration of Suckow’s first novel, Country People.  Host sites are being scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

Applicant Requirements:

1. Non-profit status – such as Iowa public libraries, historical societies, German American groups, and other Iowa cultural organizations.

2. Host contribution: The Exhibit is offered free-of-charge; however, we are asking each hosting institution to take responsibility for mailing or driving the Exhibit shipping box to the next Exhibit site.  (It will contain six 24 x 36 inch panels and a retractable banner).  To reduce mailing (or driving) costs for each hosting organization, we will make every effort to schedule the Traveling Exhibit so that hosting sites will be as close to each other as possible.  We hope this will keep host costs to less than $50.

Download and fill out the form below. Return to lounsberry@gmail.com.

2025

Jan. 12 – Feb. 9, 2025:  Drake Community Library, Grinnell -- Reader’s Theatre performance of “A Great Mollie.” Exhibit Program January 16 at 6 p.m. on Suckow’s Grinnell novella A Part of the Institution by Dr. Michael Hustedde, Emeritus Professor of English, St. Ambrose University; January 29 at 7 p.m., Reader’s Theatre performance of Suckow’s short story “A Great Mollie” by 4 Grinnell-area actors directed by Jennie Flinspach, Head, Department of English, Grinnell High School; January 9 at 7 p.m., Book Club discussion of Suckow’s first novel Country People

Feb. 16 – March 16, 2025:  Manchester Public Library. Exhibit Program by Kenneth Lyftogt, retired Lecturer, University of Northern Iowa Department of History.

March 23 – April 20, 2025: LeMars Public Library

April 27 – May 25, 2025: Atlantic Public Library

June 1 – June 29, 2025: Williamsburg Public Library--Exhibit Program by Dr. Barbara Lounsberry, Emerita Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa.

July 6 – August 3, 2025:  West Point Public Library – Exhibit Program by Dr. Barbara

Lounsberry, Emerita Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa.

August 10 – September 7, 2025:  Burlington Public Library -- Exhibit Program by Dr. Barbara Lounsberry, Emerita Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa.

September 14 – October 12, 2025:  Marion Public Library – Exhibit Program by Dr. Barbara Lounsberry, Emerita Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa.

October 19 – November 16, 2025:  Loras College, Dubuque

November 23, 2025 – December 21 – Upham Public Library, Fredericksburg

2026

December 28, 2025 – January 25, 2026 – Livermore Public Library

February 1 – March 1, 2026 – Lied Public Library, Clarinda

March 8 – April 5 – Shenandoah Public Library

April 12 – May 17 (five weeks) – Gibson Public Library

Libraries that have expressed interest in hosting and received an Application Form

Albia Public Library * 

Knoxville Public Library * Montezuma Public Library *

Ruthven Public Library

Dr. James Schaap, Emeritus Professor of English at Dordt College, gives a Traveling Exhibit program on Suckow's first novel, Country People" in Hawarden (above).

The Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit

Our talented Vice President, Jim Schaap, traveled to the Hawarden Public Library recently to speak for the first stop in 2024 of the Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit.

How appropriate that the Exhibit is starting where Ruth herself started--in Hawarden!  

RSMA President Barbara Lounsberry

The Suckow Exhibit in Cedar Falls

We celebrated the Suckow Exhibit at the Cedar Falls Public Library, "Iowa Writer Ruth Suckow: The Cedar Falls Connection," from June 23 through August 4th.

A group of local RSMA members participated. President Barbara Lounsberry began the program with images of Suckow's years in Cedar Falls during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.  A short Reader’s Theatre performance of Suckow’s short story “A Rural Community,” featuring Michael Dargan, Cherie Dargan, and Barbara Lounsberry, followed. 

Closing the program local Ruth Suckow Memorial Association members Kenneth Lyftogt, Julie Husband, and Jim O’Loughlin shared what drew them to Suckow and her work.

“Ruth Suckow and her handsome husband, Ferner Nuhn, made important contributions to the metro art and literary scenes during their years in the community,” said Barbara Lounsberry, UNI Emerita Professor of English and President of the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association. “This year we are celebrating the centennial of the publication of Suckow’s first novel, Country People, which is set in northeast Iowa. Copies of the new centennial edition of the novel will be available for purchase at the program.”

This event, including punch and desserts, was free and open to the public.

Jim O'Loughlin unveils the cover of the new edition of Country People