Conklin Reed Organ & History Museum

The Conklin Reed Organ and History Museum at 105 Jackson St in Brooklyn, Iowa is one of the most unusual small museums in the American Midwest, housing a collection of more than 100 antique reed organs and melodeons spanning the 19th and early 20th centuries. Reed organs — keyboard instruments that produce sound by air flowing through metal reeds, operated by foot-powered bellows — were the primary home and church keyboard instrument in the United States before the piano became affordable after 1900. Brooklyn, Iowa became an unlikely center of reed organ preservation through the obsessive collecting of founder and curator Dale Conklin, who spent decades sourcing instruments from rural Iowa churches, farmhouses, and estate sales. The collection is displayed in a former commercial building on downtown Brooklyn's main street, with instruments arranged in rows and stacked in storage areas; the museum atmosphere is that of an organized private collection rather than a formal exhibition space. Many instruments in the collection are in playing condition, and weekend visits typically include demonstrations by the curator or knowledgeable volunteer staff. Styles range from parlor organs with elaborate Victorian walnut cases and mirrored superstructures to simpler pump organs used in one-room schoolhouses. Harmoniums of European manufacture sit alongside American-made Mason and Hamlin, Estey, and Story and Clark instruments. The museum also displays related period ephemera including Victorian sheet music, trade catalogues, and photographs. Brooklyn is located about one hour east of Des Moines via I-80 to Exit 182.