Editing Oskaloosa, Iowa (section)

==Distinctions==
In the city's town square is a bronze statue of [[Chief Mahaska]], the 19th-century leader of a Native American tribe called the Ioway; he was memorialized by the name of Mahaska County. Restored in the 21st century, the statue was completed in 1907 by an Iowa-born sculptor named [[Sherry Edmundson Fry]] (1879–1966). At the time it was commissioned, Fry was living in Paris. He returned to Iowa the following summer to make preparatory drawings of [[Meskwaki]] at the nearby [[Meskwaki Settlement|Settlement]] at Tama, Iowa, and to collect Indian artifacts and other reference materials. Returning to Paris, he began on a clay scale model, which he first showed at the [[Paris Salon]] in 1907. A year later, Fry exhibited the final full-sized sculpture, for which he won the ''[[Prix de Rome]].'' Soon after, it was shipped to the United States, and arrived in Oskaloosa by railroad in September. The formal dedication of the statue was held on May 12, 1909, and attended by a crowd of about 12,000 people.

Oskaloosa boasts two private homes designed in 1948–51 by American architect [[Frank Lloyd Wright]]. Typical of his [[Usonian]] homes, these are the [[Carroll Alsop House]] at 1907 A Ave E and the [[Jack Lamberson House]] at 511 North Park Avenue.

Oskaloosa hosted the [[Iowa State Fair]] in 1858 and 1859, prior to the Civil War.

In 1934, Oskaloosa became the first city in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens, including children.<!-- Why? -->