Iowa State Fair enthusiasts can get an in-depth perspective on the attraction’s history at an event held by the Stuart People Active for Library Service (PALS).

PALS presents Humanities Iowa Speaker and Author Mary Kay Shanley with her presentation “Our State Fair is a Great State Fair – But You Already Know That.” Shanley has written 10 books including “Our State Fair – Iowa’s Blue Ribbon Story,” which was commissioned by the fair’s Blue Ribbon Foundation. Shanley says she’s been a lifelong fairgoer, but her research for the book included receiving a truckload shipment of fair artifacts, and her own personal challenge, “I’m going to go to the fair every day for 11 days and I’m never going to do anything that I’d done before. So that’s how I got my research done was from boxes and boxes and 11 days at the fair.”

Shanley will display some of the book’s 500 historic photographs and tales from over 150 years of the fair. Attendees are welcome to share their own fair stories, and bring ribbons and other memorabilia to be displayed at the library. The event will take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday August 6th in the Stuart City Hall Council Chambers, and is free and open to the public.