1. People are People: The Immigrant Experience -- 2. Bullheaded as all Hell: Joseph Kolarik -- 3. We Kept the Needles Sharp: Sister Mary Lawrence Hallagan -- 4. Jerking the Trolley, and Other Simple Pleasures: John Ely, Jr. -- 5. Growing Up at Brucemore: Barbara Douglas Dixon -- 6. You are One of the Best: Virgil Powell -- 7. The Best Contract I Ever Entered Into: Robert & Esther Armstrong -- 8. Press on: The Great Depression -- 9. I've Been Through All the Floods: William Crawford 10. I Knew Exactly How to Handle a Car: Ella Johnson Miller -- 11. It Was a Real Thrill: Catherine Eckstein -- 12. My Lucky Day: William Quarton -- 13. We are All the Same Under the Skin: Edith Atkinson -- 14. Arts Take Root in the Heartland: Grant Wood and Marvin Cone -- 15. Arts Take Root in the Heartland: Community Theater -- 16. Arts Take Root in the Heartland: The Cedar Rapids Symphony -- 17. A Triumph of Will: The Cedar Rapids Public Library -- Acknowledgments -- Index of Names and Places -- Bibliography -- Endnotes
Summary:
A Great Cloud of Witnesses presents oral history memories of the early 20th century in a midwestern community. In the 1980s, the Cedar Rapids Public Library and Junior League of Cedar Rapids interviewed nearly 100 community members about their memories of the early 20th century. The topics covered immigration, early industries, tragic industrial accidents, downtown businesses, the Depression and its effects on banks and the economy, the contributions of Czech immigrants and African Americans to the cultural fabric, the growth of schools and hospitals, the transformation of communication with telephones and early radio, the impact of Grant Wood and his art, the rise of community theater, the Cedar Rapids Symphony, and the public library—these are only a few of the many topics in the interviews. The voices of these community members have much to say to us today. They speak with resilience and optimism of their lives and relationships in Cedar Rapids during the tumultuous early years of the 20th century. They give us a glimpse of a time when people made community through hardship, sacrifice, and perseverance, a time when people created fun out of nothing and endured whatever came their way. And took care of each other through it all. We need to hear these stories again.-- Amazon.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.