Review of "Seven Ages of A City: Pictorial History of Cedar Rapids," Sutherland Dows

Review of

Seven Ages of A City: Pictorial History of Cedar Rapids, Sutherland Dows

Four out of five stars

 This short book is a brief history of the area where the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa is located. It is constructed from a combination of small sections of text on the left and an original oil coloring on the right. As the title suggests, there are seven such pairings.

 It starts with a brief description of the Mound Builders, when the people of the years 500-1000 CE moved massive amounts of dirt by hand to make mounds on the banks of the Cedar River whose purpose is largely unknown. The seventh and last age is the modern one, showing the city of Cedar Rapids in the year 1957.

 The book is written in the form of a Chamber of Commerce handout to visitors from some distance that are unfamiliar with the background of Eastern Iowa. As a history lesson, it is weak and brief, yet as an brief advertisement for the city in the late 1950s, it is quite good.