As the Iowa Digital Library approaches the 100,000-item mark, we’re celebrating this milestonetemp by highlighting some of our favorite items from the collections.

Title: Threshing at the Graham farm, Davis City, Iowa, 1910s
Creator: unknown
Collection: Noble Photographs Digital Collection

One of my favorite images from the digital collections is this image of threshing. I was fortunate to have a great-grandfather still living in south central Iowa and great-aunts and -uncles who wanted to carry on the farming tradition when I was a child in the 1980s. Great-grandpa still had a steam engine for threshing. The entire family came to the land one day when I was 6 years old and we used that old dated machine to thresh. It was extremely hot, there was hay flying everywhere in the air, and I remember moving a blanket across the south part of the field where there were small trees along the fence so I could remain in the sparse shade. The absolute best part of the day was the picnic lunch where everyone took a break and sat down to eat. What an incredible memory to build for the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of how the work was done long ago in Iowa. I’ll never forget it!

–Sara Baird
Library Assistant, Central Technical Services