Our Mission
The Mission of Fullhart Carnegie Charitable Trust is to build community capacity and development through the study, communication, and celebration of small town life through social history and the arts.
About Us
Hometown Heritage is a collection and archive of stories, photographs, and interviews about life in small town America. We are located in the historical Carnegie Library Museum in Perry, Iowa -- a building with many stories of its own -- and we seek to share the history of our city, our state, and our nation through the eyes of the people who lived here. Our collection includes a vast photo history of our city, the surrounding area, and the people who called this place home. Our goal is to bring our history to life by focusing on the many waves of immigrants who settled here to find a better life and the contributions that they made. This history reveals that the things that brought families here a century ago are not so different from those of today.
The Mission of Fullhart Carnegie Charitable Trust is to build community capacity and development through the study, communication, and celebration of small town life through social history and the arts.
About Us
Hometown Heritage is a collection and archive of stories, photographs, and interviews about life in small town America. We are located in the historical Carnegie Library Museum in Perry, Iowa -- a building with many stories of its own -- and we seek to share the history of our city, our state, and our nation through the eyes of the people who lived here. Our collection includes a vast photo history of our city, the surrounding area, and the people who called this place home. Our goal is to bring our history to life by focusing on the many waves of immigrants who settled here to find a better life and the contributions that they made. This history reveals that the things that brought families here a century ago are not so different from those of today.
History
The Carnegie Library Museum and the High School's education exhibits were designed by Aram Mardirosian of the Virginia-based Potomac Group; an organization of architects and planners specializing in museums, interpretive centers, visitor centers, and parks. Among Mardirosian's many commissions are The Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis, Mo., and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson.
Hometown Heritage is a collection of the personal stories and memories of area residents, illustrated through more than 15,000 photographs -- one of the largest collections of images centered around a small Midwestern town. In collaboration with the College of Design at Iowa State University, FCCT has developed "Pathways," a state-of-the-art database of all its stories and visual images.
These are the stories of immigrants who made Perry their home. The first immigrants arrived more than 100 years ago and this process continues with the settlement of new immigrants: Latinos, Sudanese, and Vietnamese. Our stories focus on how these immigrants came with their own cultures, blended together, and learned to live with one another. The stories reveal five themes – education, work, faith, family, and loss – which formed the foundation of small-town life. The themes serve as the cornerstones for Hometown Heritage.
The Carnegie Library Museum and the High School's education exhibits were designed by Aram Mardirosian of the Virginia-based Potomac Group; an organization of architects and planners specializing in museums, interpretive centers, visitor centers, and parks. Among Mardirosian's many commissions are The Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis, Mo., and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson.
Hometown Heritage is a collection of the personal stories and memories of area residents, illustrated through more than 15,000 photographs -- one of the largest collections of images centered around a small Midwestern town. In collaboration with the College of Design at Iowa State University, FCCT has developed "Pathways," a state-of-the-art database of all its stories and visual images.
These are the stories of immigrants who made Perry their home. The first immigrants arrived more than 100 years ago and this process continues with the settlement of new immigrants: Latinos, Sudanese, and Vietnamese. Our stories focus on how these immigrants came with their own cultures, blended together, and learned to live with one another. The stories reveal five themes – education, work, faith, family, and loss – which formed the foundation of small-town life. The themes serve as the cornerstones for Hometown Heritage.