Support Our Work

For over 55 years, the Cedar Falls Historical Society has brought together local residents, business owners, and individuals and families with personal ties to Cedar Falls to collect and celebrate local history. All of our work is about finding and building meaningful connections in our community.

We hope you’ll consider joining us—as a member, volunteer, donor, sponsor, visitor, traveler, and fellow lover of history. Be a part of our Society!

The Cedar Falls Historical Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit and is not a division of or dependent upon any local, county, or state government nor does it regularly receive funds from government sources. 

Join as a Member

Memberships now renew annually on July 1 and are tax deductible as allowed by law. Your membership today will be valid through June 30, 2025. 

You can join today or renew your membership by downloading a form to send in, or through PayPal:
Membership categories:
Student : $25
Individual : $50
Household: $100
Community Supporter: $150
Business Supporter: $175
Friend: $250
Benefactor: $500
Patron: $1,000
Philanthropist: $1,500+
Choose your membership level
Membership includes:
  • Subscription to the “Museum District News” newsletter 
  • Subscription to our e-newsletter 
  • Discounted pricing for historic bus tours
  • Discounted pricing for the Summer at the Schoolhouse program 
  • Two free admissions to the Ice House Museum each year
  • Rewarding volunteer opportunities 
Make a Donation

2023 was an eventful year at the Cedar Falls Historical Society! The annual exhibit was titled “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid: Servants in Cedar Falls,” and it was accompanied by a full series of programs. In addition, we held our fourth Ice Harvest Festival, our annual cemetery walk, our second Celebration of Herbs, and first ever Historic Churches Tour! Thousands of visitors and students toured our museums, and once again, over 100 children participated in Summer at the Schoolhouse. Plus, we began renovating our education center at 315 Clay Street! We have many more programs in the works for 2024! We hope you will consider making a contribution to sustain the preservation of our history for generations to come.

If you would like to make an online general donation to our private, 501(c)3 organization,  click the yellow "Donate" button below.
Contact Carrie Eilderts, Executive Director by 
e-mail, or phone her at 319-266-5149 for more information about giving opportunities, including planned giving.

To make a donation of cash, check, or automatic ACH payments, please follow the instructions on this form.

Support the Cedar Falls Historical Society every time you shop online at Walmart. Donate spare change by automatically rounding up your orders to the nearest dollar at checkout. Visit our profile for more information here.

We're expanding!
New Historical Society Education Center and Museum coming to 315 Clay Street!

• We have purchased the building at 315 Clay Street, just steps from the Victorian House Museum.

• The main floor of the building will be renovated to house a large classroom, perfect for classes, programs and community gatherings. The lower level has already been renovated to house climate-controlled archival storage. Renovations to the main floor of the existing building will be Phase 1 of this project. Work started at the beginning of November 2023 and is expected to be complete by June 2024!

• A planned new building on the property, located across the alley from the existing building, will house additional artifact storage in the lower level, plus a new museum that celebrates business, industry, agriculture and transportation in Cedar Falls. This will be Phase 2 of the project, and fundraising for this phase is ongoing. 

• Interactive exhibits and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts will be used to tell our history.

• School groups and field trips will have a perfect home base for exploring all of our other museums within walking distance.

Floor plans and proposed exterior design for Phase 1 of the project, courtesy of Align Architecture


There are still naming opportunities available for Phase 1, including the education center, the office, and the vestibule. Contact us to learn more. 


Interested in how you can support this project or would like to learn more? Contact Carrie Eilderts, Executive Director, by email or phone her at 319-266-5149.

Donate

Pictured above is the proposed design for the new marker.

Help Recognize a Cedar Falls Legend!


Donations are now being accepted to purchase a gravemarker for Eddie and Sarah Bowles, who are buried together in an unmarked grave in Cedar Valley Memorial Gardens.


Eddie Bowles (1884-1984) was a longtime resident of the Cedar City neighborhood who was known for playing blues guitar in the style he had learned as a young man in New Orleans. He moved to Cedar Falls in 1914 to pave some of the city’s first asphalt roads, and his wife, Sarah (1892-1987) soon joined him. They lived in Cedar Falls for the rest of their lives, and their door was open to friends and neighbors. Besides playing music, Eddie Bowles helped to build the Cedar Falls that we know today. In addition to his time as a road paver, he was employed by local railroads, as a foundryman for John Deere, and by the city of Cedar Falls as a tree trimmer. He also had his own wood cutting business for a number of years. You can listen to the Best of Eddie Bowles on all major music streaming services or for free online at https://eddiebowles.hearnow.com/. 


Your donation will help to ensure that Cedar Falls commemorates and recognizes Eddie and Sarah Bowles. To donate to this project, please use the "Donate" button below, or send a check made out to the Cedar Falls Historical Society with "Eddie Bowles" on the memo line to 308 W 3rd St, Cedar Falls, IA 50613.

Lend a Hand
and Volunteer

Join in the fun at the Historical Society, learn more about local history, and connect with your community. Each year, over 120 volunteers contribute their time and talents to our organization. Contact us to learn more about what you can do!

Click here to fill out a volunteer application online.
If you prefer to fill out a paper application, please download one here, then scan and email it to historyeducation@cfu.net, or drop it off or send it to the Cedar Falls Historical Society, 308 W. 3rd St., Cedar Falls, IA 50613.
Museum Host: Welcome visitors at our Ice House Museum, Victorian House Museum, or Little Red Schoolhouse. Provide visitors with an introduction to the museum and exhibits, assist with gift shop purchases, and answer general questions.

Education Assistant: Work with the Education Coordinator to manage school field trips and assist with special programs and presentations. From Girl Scouts programs to preschool visits to adult workshops, there are opportunities to work with a wide range of age groups.

Special Event Committee Member: Throughout the year, the Historical Society has a number of special events and activities that require some extra energy.
E-mail Diane Schupbach or call 319-266-5149 for more information. Learn more about volunteering at the Cedar Falls Historical Society from our dedicated Ice House Museum volunteers:

Internships

Our museum buildings provide a rich opportunity for students in History, Public History, Museum Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Education, and other fields. Interns work on special projects based on their interests and the Historical Society’s needs at that time. Past interns have cataloged our military collection, inventoried our Victorian Home, conducted research for Ice House Museum exhibitions, and helped develop educational trunks for students.

Our staff works closely with interns to create meaningful projects that provide hands-on learning in areas such as collections care, preservation, database management, museum policies and procedures, and exhibition development.
Collections Intern
The Cedar Falls Historical Society offers one Collections Internship each fall and each summer. This intern will work with the Society’s artifact collection and will organize, inventory, and photograph or scan artifacts for cataloging. She or he may also have the opportunity to learn PastPerfect museum software and assist with database entry. The Collections Intern will also have the opportunity to learn other aspects of museum work, such as hosting at museums and conducting archival research. Click here for more information and for application details. Please note: The Summer 2024 and Fall 2024 collections internships are both filled. 


Education Intern
The Cedar Falls Historical Society offers one Education Internships per semester session. This internship is ideal for individuals interested in expanding their understanding of the field of museum education. Experiences may include prepping and setting up for programs, doing research, designing scavenger hunts, giving programs to groups, creating educational craft activities, and assembling educational materials. Click here for more information and for application details.


Please e-mail us for more information or to submit your application.

Donate an Artifact

The Cedar Falls Historical Society collects a wide variety of items that represent the history of our community and help tell its story. We have certain policies and procedures we must follow when accepting artifact donations:

1. Contact our collections manager at historycollections@cfu.net or (319) 266-5149. Include all the information you have on the artifact, including its age, who owned it, and its history. Attaching photos is very helpful.

2. If your artifact appears to fit our collecting criteria, we will make an appointment for you to bring it to the museum for further consideration. At that time, you will fill out and sign a Temporary Artifact Receipt, giving us permission to evaluate the artifact for the collection.

3. After examining the artifact, a decision will be made by staff as to whether or not it can be accepted. If accepted, a Deed of Gift will be sent to you for signature. This will complete the donation paperwork and the transfer of ownership to the museum.

Cedar Falls and the Pandemic



How are you dealing with the pandemic? The Cedar Falls Historical Society wants to document how residents are making it through these challenging times. We all have different coping methods—maybe you’re reading every book in the library, learning to bake bread, or writing poetry or short stories. We want to create an archive of letters, drawings, poetry, stories, etc. to preserve for future generations a record of how we dealt with this crisis. This project was inspired by a similar project being done by the Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Montana.


Our mission is to “engage the community in the preservation, education, and celebration of our heritage.” Our archives preserves many personal accounts of life in Cedar Falls that help us understand what life was like in the past. This project will be very helpful to those in the future who want to learn from the past. We hope that you will participate.


Please mail letters and other materials to Collections Manager, Cedar Falls Historical Society, 308 W. 3rd St., Cedar Falls, IA 50613.

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