Remembering V-E Day at BVU

It all started with scut work. During some recent summers, I’ve had help in the Buena Vista University Archives (Storm Lake, Iowa) from Phoebe Feis and to a smaller extent, her younger sister, Lydia.

The Feis sisters are daughters of Dr. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis and Dr. Bill Feis, who comprise the BVU History Department. It’s not much of a stretch to say that history runs thick through their daughters’ veins.

Archives as depicted in the movies is to real-life archives as courtroom drama is to a real-life trial, meaning there is not a lot of drama or excitement in everyday archives work.

It’s important work, but a lot of what happens in the daily life of an archivist involves sorting, organizing and labeling folders and boxes, and so it was for Phoebe, willing grunt that she was.

The “sexy” comes with exhibits and displays, but the BVU Archives has only one small display case and no real exhibit space, so there hasn’t been much opportunity for much of a wow factor.

Until recently, that is. In the fall of 2023, Phoebe decided to delay graduate school for a few months. It was an unexpected bonus of help for the BVU Archives, but it had far-reaching implications for the community-at-large.

The scut assignment involved sorting old issues of The Tack, BV’s campus newspaper, which has been in existence since 1895. The print run lasted until 2012, at which time it became an online-only publication.

The newspapers had once been sorted by date (with three copies of each date), but when the archives received a grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa in 2017, one copy had to be removed and sent away for digitization.

I never got around to getting those copies reintegrated into their rightful folders and boxes, so that was the job I gave to Phoebe. It was a terrible, beyond-boring job, and yet, bright student that she is, she paid attention to the task at hand.

While sorting papers from the 1940s, she noticed that many issues featured BV students who had joined the armed forces to fight in World War II. Eighteen of them were killed in the line of duty.

At home, she told her parents about the interesting stories she had seen, and Dixee, cognizant that 2025 was the 80th anniversary of V-E Day (that’s Victory in Europe for younger readers), began to ruminate. No doubt Bill was ruminating, too. Thus, an idea was born.

Because these papers are available digitally, Phoebe could do research once she began her program in Washington, D.C. She began writing stories about each of the fallen soldiers for the Storm Lake Times Pilot. If you’ve read them, you know that she’s a terrific writer.

Her contribution to marking this anniversary year would have been offering enough, but that was only a beginning. Bill, Dixee and Phoebe also planned a large-scale exhibit that was unveiled May 8 at the Social Sciences and Art building on the BVU campus.

On a beautiful spring evening, Bill welcomed around 80 people to the event, directing our attention to the two war memorials on campus, one of which bears the names of two BV students who were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor: Darrell Lindsey and Ralph G. Neppel.

Attendees then stepped inside the SSA building and were greeted by Madeline Best serving pastries and cookies as a “donut dolly.” A few steps farther on, the art gallery had been transformed into a well-designed display space. In addition to the many posters and maps courtesy of the Feis team, uniforms and artifacts were on loan from the Buena Vista County Historical Society. These objects helped bring the stories in the posters to fuller life.*

That’s what an effective exhibition does. It draws the visitor in with visual interest using color and texture and a sense of flow. Dolores Cullen covered the event for the Storm Lake Times Pilot. Phoebe was dressed and coiffed in the style of the 1940s.

The converted art gallery would have been experience enough, but it didn’t end there. Visitors were led through the Hall of Remembrance with posters that told the stories of the 18 BV students who were killed. Additionally, two classrooms were set aside to honor the two Congressional Medal of Honor winners, and a third room offered a recording that focused on local boy Carroll Haarup who had been a gunner and radio operator on a Flying Fortress.

And even that was not all. Recent BV alum Matt Helmers (2024) delivered a living history experience for attendees, replete with costuming.

If you missed the exhibit, all is not lost. Folks in Northwest Iowa, or anyone passing through Storm Lake, can still see the main exhibition and the Hall of Remembrance Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. or by appointment through June 6.

What started out as scut work became, in the hands of an intrepid student and her far-sighted parents, the impetus to remember a war that is fading from public memory. It also drove her to shift her graduate focus to public history.

If this exhibition is any indication, Phoebe has a bright future.

*Storm Lake was hit by straight line winds on April 18, and the roof of the BVCHS was torn off in the storm. The resulting damage to the historical society has been extensive. If you have ties to Buena Vista County and care about preserving its heritage, you can donate to their Go Fund Me: “Buena Vista County Historical Society Damage Fund.”

Joan Zwagerman was wowed by all of the work that the Feises put into the exhibition.