Gift Shop

The Gift Shop at the Jordan House Museum has a selection of unique, educational and fun items for purchase!

Victorian Prairie Herb Blend

A balanced mix of fragrant, pollinator-friendly prairie herbs that evokes the layered texture and soft beauty of Victorian cottage gardens and Midwestern prairie landscapes. Featuring Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata), and Prairie Sage (Artemisia ludoviciana), this blend creates a naturalistic planting of lavender, violet, and silvery tones, blooming from early summer through fall while supporting pollinators and offering resilient, low-maintenance beauty.

Summer Moonlight Pollinator Blend

A serene, dusk-inspired mix designed to bring fragrance and soft beauty to the evening garden. Featuring Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis), White Nicotiana (Nicotiana alata), White Four O’Clock (Mirabilis jalapa), and Moonflower (Ipomoea alba), this blend produces luminous white and soft yellow blooms that open in late afternoon and evening. Suitable for part shade and direct sowing in spring, these easy-to-grow flowers attract night pollinators while creating a peaceful, low-maintenance, Victorian-inspired moon garden.

Roots of Freedom ~ 250th Anniversary Blend

This balanced blend of native wildflowers celebrates the colors of freedom with a naturalistic display of red, white, and blue blooms. Featuring Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), White Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis), Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata), and Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), this mix creates layered color. These hardy natives support pollinators while offering a meaningful, low-maintenance planting that reflects the beauty and resilience of Midwestern prairie landscapes.

Prices:

Single Pack: $6
Set of 2: $11
Set of 3: $15

Pursuit of a Dream; James Jordan: His Life and His Legacy
Author: Louise Gately
$29.95

Virginia homesteader and cattle farmer James Cunningham Jordan moved his family in 1846 (the year Iowa entered statehood) to their new property in an area that would later be named Walnut Township, located five miles west of Fort Des Moines No. 2 on the northern bank of the Raccoon River, he not only staked his family’s claim, but sowed the seeds for Valley Junction (now known as Historic Valley Junction), which blossomed into West Des Moines.

Ms. Gately’s recounting of Jordan’s impact not just on the area that became West Des Moines, but in the state of Iowa as well. Jordan was a prominent and influential businessman, politician and abolitionist. He would first play a vital role in Des Moines, where he helped secure the railroad, relocate the state’s capitol, establish the State Bank of Iowa, create Iowa’s insurance industry and was elected to the Des Moines City Council, Polk County Board of Supervisors, Iowa Senate and Iowa House of Representatives. Most importantly, his home, which is now that headquarters for the West Des Moines Historical Society, served as a safe house for enslaved people who escaped the South via the Underground Railroad.