Editor’s note: “Muscatine Memories” is a feature produced in cooperation with the Muscatine Art Center, which provides photos and information for the series from its extensive collection of Muscatine history. The series will run on alternating Saturdays with the Musser Public Library’s “Photographic Memories.” The Muscatine Art Center is located at 1314 Mulberry Ave. For more information, call 263-8282 or go to www.muscatineartcenter.org/.

The Muscatine Art Center was first established in 1965, when the Musser mansion was donated to the city of Muscatine by the heirs of Laura Musser, Mary Musser Gilmore and Mary Catherine Atkins McWhirter. The mansion was to be used as a memorial art gallery and museum. In 1976, C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley gave the Stanley Gallery to the city, to accommodate changing art exhibitions and art classes and again in 1980, recognizing the Art Center’s expanding needs, the Stanley’s offered a challenge gift of $500,000 (matched by the public), for the linkage facility than connects the Musser Museum and the Stanley Gallery. The gift also established the Museum Art Center Support Foundation, and interest monies to be used for acquisitions, conservation and program enrichment.

Shown here are some of the first important acquisitions made as a starting point to build the museum’s permanent collection.