The Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit

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.

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