Floyd County Museum

Established in 1953, the Floyd County Museum offers permanent and changing exhibits that explore the county's economic, social, and cultural history. These include a main gallery; recreations of a drugstore, a county store, a 19th-century period home, and a one-room school; and exhibits showcasing the tractor industry and the historic business district. The museum is partly housed in a historic building called the Salsbury Laboratory and Administration Building, which was built in 1935 and where advances in the poultry industry were made. For this reason, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The museum is operated by the Floyd County Historical Society.

The Floyd County Federation of Women's Clubs founded the Floyd County Historical Society on October 29, 1953. The museum first opened in a former drug store in 1963 and remained there until the Society acquired the Salsbury building in 1979. The modern wing of the museum was built in 1999 to make room to display tractors, implements, and tools.

The laboratory building was erected by Dr. Joseph E. Salsbury, who established a veterinary practice in Charles City in 1923. In the coming years, his interest in poultry health grew and he built a facility to produce medicines in 1929. The next year, he closed his practice to focus entirely on poultry health. His new business grew rapidly in the coming years, prompting him to build the laboratory in 1935. He soon needed more space and built an addition in 1937.

The health products Salsbury created allowed large numbers of poultry to be concentrated together. This development facilitated the expansion of the poultry industry and coincided with innovations in egg incubation and chick brooding. Before these innovations, poultry health was not a major focus of concern to veterinarians because poultry, which were still mostly being raised on small farms, were considered of lesser value compared to horses and cows. Salsbury's work helped change this mindset and revolutionize the poultry industry.

"About." Floyd County Museum. Accessed October 27, 2021. https://www.floydcountymuseum.org/?page_id=11.

Lamprich, Scott. "Dr. Salsbury's Laboratories, Main Office and Production Laboratory Building." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. March 7, 1996. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/96000235_text.