Grout Museum of History & Science

I took my two kids here on spring break. They had a deal that anyone could get in for $ 1 each. I thought why not. My kids are 9 and 7.
Some of the things were really boring for them. Like the videos of veterans telling stories but the enjoyed the tank they could crawl in and the helicopter display.
The majority of it was for adults but my kids did Thales some valuable information from it. They learned about the poor living conditions soldiers had to live in during WWII and about the Sullivan brothers story.
It was not an afternoon wasted but probably not the most fun thing they did on spring break.

I love museums (everything from art to history to science, etc) and looked forward to going through the complex. We actually made a special trip and drove a pretty good distance to get to the museum, so were really disappointed. I recommend people go and make up their own minds but I really doubt I’ll ever go back. I wouldn’t recommend making a special trip of any distance.
Iowa Veterans Museum
1. When you pay you’re given a small «dog tag» with a bar code on it. There are kiosks located around the facility where you scan your tag and get a little story in 3 parts. E.g. 1. You’re a 42 year old man that’s a professor at a small college. 2. You volunteer and are shipped out to war X and are wounded in the arm. 3. You return to Iowa and continue teaching. The paragraphs are slightly longer but that’s the gist. My issue is they don’t ever go into more detail on the person. Is it a real person or just made up? Does it matter? There’s other stories. Some where the person dies. Whatever, war sucks. I’m guessing they’re trying to say war is bad and get you to empathize. I found it boring and pointless after the first.
2. My wife and I ran across several areas where no context was given to the display. The displays were labeled as «Audio Stops.» We weren’t able to find a way to get audio so assumed they were broken. We told the front desk as we were leaving. Turns out you can rent radio wands to listen to these displays for $ 3. It would have been nice to know that when we were paying our entrance fee as opposed to leaving.
3. I get that there were farmers that didn’t fight in the wars and they were needed at home. I felt they beat this into us with multiple displays on the subject. Frankly they were all repeats of each other. Along the lines of, «Soldiers need food and farmers had to stay home and work hard. They were labeled as war slackers.» Just an observation, it is called the «Iowa Veterans Museum» not the «Iowa Farmers Museum.» The same with a lot of the «home front» displays. They’re necessary in the context of the wars and military but they really beat it into the ground and you only care about «Times were tough at home» stories so many times. Especially since they were all the same.
4. Several of the automated movie displays weren’t operational. You walk in and they’re supposed to start automatically. Some worked, some didn’t.
5. Since they’re so light on actual printed descriptions and rely so heavily on multimedia, they need to make sure it’s easy to use and it’s operational. Frankly their computer displays with the track balls were a pain in the butt to use and there wasn’t enough information payout to make screwing with them worthwhile. This is coming from a person that actually is a professional computer expert that actually knows how to use computers.
6. I also noted several factual errors in some of the displays.
The Grout Museum.
OK, I’ve been to a lot of really good military museums so expected the Iowa Veterans museum to be a little light. I REALLY was looking forward to the Grout museum so I could learn more about the history of the area. They consistently left out descriptions and context for the artifacts. It was like browsing a thrift/​antique store. Lots of junk but no context or descriptions.
1. I’m pretty sure all museums have something in their mission statement along the lines of «Preserve history and teach to future generations.» I felt that the Grout museum failed on the «teach to future generations» part. Many, many, many of the artifacts weren’t labeled in the displays. For example, one display showed an ax, saw, and several common items used in the past. The display also contained a wooden device that we had no clue what it was and what it was used for. The ax and saw were labeled as «Ax» and «Saw.» No label for the somewhat unique device. I still don’t know what it is. I also would have liked to know what the particular ax and saw were used for. They had unique shapes so I’m sure had unique purposes.
2. The old shop displays were the worst. Zero items were labeled. It’s possible that you’ll recognize some of the stuff since an anvil is an anvil (we’ve all seen the Roadrunner and Coyote). Most people have seen screwdrivers. The problem is there were many tools that just don’t exist today. These items need to be labeled have hopefully have a little description of what they were used for.
3. The small gasoline engines could have used an illustration of some ways they were used. I had an idea but didn’t really know until I saw an old advertisement (near the display) that showed «The Farmer of the Future.»
4. I would have also really liked to have maps to show the old location of some of the displays (e.g. the roundhouse and the packing plant). They were beautiful models but again, how and where did they fit into the local community.
5. Context of Mr Grouts personal exhibit contents.
6. Farmer’s Market display isn’t history. I just didn’t get why it was there.

Great museum. I was particularly fond of the pioneer area, but the war sections were very informative and handled with care.
During this visit, through September, there is an amazing quilt exhibit that trumps the one I saw in NYC ten years ago. Highly recommended.

This is a complex of a number of museums, including the Iowa Veterans Museum.
This is a museum that does not glorify war. It simply reports what happens in war, and it pulls no punches. I was very impressed.
The veterans museum is just the right size, not too big that you get fatiqued, not too small that you feel shortchanged.