by Jeffrey A. Rothermel Captain's Log August 15-16, 2026 Seminole Valley Farm Museum One weekend a year, I close my environmentally controlled and comfortable showroom and travel north to the humid and misty riverbanks of the Cedar Rapids. This was my fifth year of selling books from a tent in harmony with mother nature and her occasional outbursts. Why dare the misfortune of damaged paper from moisture? Believe it or not... nothing better than a rainy outdoor weekend of a

Jeffrey A. Rothermel April 29, 2026 Captain's Log: The WW2 Honorable Discharge Certificate for the Army of the United States An interesting leaf of ephemera recently entered the bookstore. It was a piece of paper printed on both sides in 1945. The front side of the document contained the bottom line. It was a certificate stating Private First Class Hesseltine "is hereby Honorably Discharged from the military service of the United States of America... 22 October 1945." The

Cedar Rapids, Iowa August 20, 2022 History on the Cedar River Split-based Operations August 20, 2022: Second World War U.S. Army reenactors on patrol at Seminole Vally Farm Museum, 1400 Seminole Valley Road, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52311. Historians study how our historical interpretations change over time. The history of history is called historiography (the study of historical writing). Not everyone learns from a book. There are various types of learners. Some are visual l