The museum was founded by Henry Whittemore Grout, a prominent Waterloo resident, financier and state legislator who loved to travel and collect reminders of the places he visited, sharing these finds with children in the community. By the time of his death, Grout had collected over 2,000 objects. His will established an endowment and named trustees to care for his collection.
The Grout Museum of History and Science features permanent and continually changing exhibitions of area history.
It's home to the James, Robert and Dick McKinstry Funded Library, northeast Iowa's largest genealogical reference library. The library also contains an archival collection numbering 21,617 maps, photographs, oral histories, audio/video tapes, clippings and documents relating to the Cedar Valley.
The Grout Museum also features the only public planetarium in Northeast Iowa.
Credit: Overview from museum website