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The Special Collections Department is lucky to have some wonderful students working here, and they do a lot of work processing our collections. Rachel Kleinschmidt, a graduate student in History, recently processed the Henry Montgomery and Bernice Bernard Black Family Papers (RS 21/8/12) and has written the blog posting below.  Since the 68th anniversary of D-Day is coming up in a few weeks on June 6, and Memorial Day is today, we thought this would be a good time to highlight this collection.

On Memorial Day, we think about the sacrifices that men and women have made by serving in the military. The Special Collections Department is home to the collections of many important ISU alumni and veterans, including Henry M. Black.

Henry M. Black (above), member of VII Corps Headquarters, 9th U.S. Army, receives oak leaf cluster to his bronze star medal from Lt. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, commanding general, VII Corps, at a ceremony in Leipzig, Germany (photograph from Box 16, Folder 4).

Henry Montgomery Black was an Iowa native, born in Reinbeck, Iowa in 1907. He attended Iowa State University (then Iowa State College) from 1925-1929, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He then furthered his education with a Master’s degree from Harvard University in 1934.

Following his time in college, Henry Black served in the United States Army. His experience as an engineer was put to use by the Army Corps of Engineers, and Henry served as the chief engineer of the Utah Beach landing during the Normandy invasion in 1944. His service was rewarded with a Bronze Star, a Legion of Merit, and a Croix de Guerre (pictured below).

Henry Black’s Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, and Croix de Guerre (Artifact number 2010-214.001-003)

Henry would eventually retire from the army at the rank of Colonel. In the meantime, he returned to his alma mater (Iowa State) to serve as the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 1946-1972. Because of his impact on the Iowa State Engineering Department and campus (he was instrumental in helping build the university’s mechanical engineering program into one of national prominence), a building was named in his honor. Black Engineering Building was named in 1987.

Henry Black in front of Black Engineering Building (photograph from Box 18, Folder 1)

Henry Black was not the only member of his extended family to have a distinguished military career. His father-in-law, Ransom Drips Bernard, served in World War I in the Army medical corps, eventually attaining the rank of Captain. Ransom was not an Iowa State graduate, but his wife, Bernice Corlette Bernard graduated with the class of 1904.

Ransom Drips Bernard (photograph from Box 40, Folder 10)

Both Henry and Ransom documented their service through letters to family back home.  These letters, along with many photographs and artifacts like those mentioned above, can be found in the Henry Montgomery Black and Bernice Bernard Black Family Papers, RS 21/8/12, in the Special Collections Department. The collection documents several generations of the Black and Bernard families through artifacts, photographs, scrapbooks, and correspondence.

Bernice Black Durand (left) and Rachel Kleinschmidt (right) going through the Henry Montgomery Black and Bernice Bernard Black Family Papers (RS 21/8/12), which Bernice donated to the department and Rachel processed.

Rachel (right) showing Bernice (right) the processed Henry Montgomery Black and Bernice Bernard Black Family Papers in the storage area.

Interested in finding out more about the collection?  You can read the finding aid online, and then come visit the Special Collections Department (open M-F, 9-4) and let us know which boxes you would like to see!

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Earth Day 2012 is just around the corner, coming up this Sunday, April 22.  The Special Collections Department contains many collections related to the environment and sustainability.  This year, we would like to highlight the Frederic Leopold Papers for an Earth Day related post.  Why Frederic Leopold, you may ask?

Frederic Leopold (at front of boat) with John Hale near Two Key Island (from Frederic Leopold Papers, MS 113, box 14).

Conservationists Aldo and Frederic Leopold were both born and raised in Iowa.  Many have probably heard of conservationist, forester, wildlife ecologist, and author Aldo Leopold, but his younger brother Frederic Leopold was also very much involved in  conservation efforts and wildlife ecology.  Both Frederic and Aldo grew up in Burlington, Iowa.  Staying in Burlington and running the family’s Leopold Desk Company, Frederic became concerned about the survival of the wood duck.

The wood duck was close to extinction in the early part of the 20^th century.  Frederic Leopold developed a design for wood duck houses and conducted extensive studies on the wood ducks’ mating and nesting habits.  Some of these studies were done in his own back yard in Burlington, overlooking the Mississippi River and its bluffs.  Included in the papers are his detailed wood duck notes and studies, including a large number of photographs he took of the wood ducks and their nests.

A wood duck perched atop one of Frederic Leopold’s wood duck houses in 1965 (box 6, folder 7).

Frederic kept wonderfully detailed records, and his travel journals are a great example of this.  For instance, in his journal of a trip to Quetico Provincial Park (the Canadian side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area) with his wife Edith, the first page of notes contains the first date of the trip (June 6, 1936), the number of people (2), the number of days (13), and a listing of food and supplies (often including amount and cost).  Also included are lists of camping clothes, cooking utensils, equipment, and a couple pages of brief recipes (including cocoa and tortillas!).  The final list is a tally of the amount of gas and oil bought – including where – and the beginning and ending mileage is also noted!

Leopold checking one of his wood duck houses in 1960 (box 6, folder 7).

Do the Frederic Leopold Papers contain anything on Earth Day?  Leopold was very much alive on that first Earth Day (April 22, 1970), and there may be correspondence, a diary entry, or other material within the collection documenting Leopold and Earth Day.  While finalizing the papers for public use, I did not come across anything on Earth Day, but my job was to make the collection available for researchers to use.  If you are curious, please come up to the Special Collections Department and look through Frederic Leopold’s Papers to see if there is anything on Earth Day or any other research area you are interested in which the papers might shed light on!

While not necessarily for Earth Day, the following brief excerpt from one of his speeches is just one of many examples within the collection of Frederic Leopold’s concern for the Earth:

“I am asked to speak on Iowa’s Conservation Heritage, which I feel is Iowa’s problem of the day…We are here because we know that unless we change our present wasteful consumptions of our natural resources we face a future calamity…”  (1970s speech from Frederic Leopold Papers, box 5, folder 8).

You can find a listing of many of our environment and sustainability related collections through our subject guide.  Interested in Gaylord Nelson and the beginning of Earth Day?  The Wisconsin Historical Society has made available online some of the records in the Gaylord Nelson Papers related to Earth Day.

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Education float from the 1922 Parade (addditional VEISHEA parade images can be found online, along with other VEISHEA images).

Next week marks the beginning of VEISHEA, Iowa State’s spring celebration and the largest student-run celebration in the country.  In addition to all of the 2012 events going on throughout the week, VEISHEA will also be celebrating its 90th anniversary!  VEISHEA was first celebrated in May 1922, a combination of Iowa State’s various spring celebrations which had previously occurred separately each spring:  St. Patrick’s Day (Engineers), Ag Carnival (Agriculture), HEC Day (Home Economics Club), and May Day (started by Women’s Athletic Association).

What was that first 1922 VEISHEA like?  The 1922 program for VEISHEA is available online, and gives a brief glimpse into the humor and activities which were a part of the first celebration, which took place May 11-13.  As the program states, the reasons for an all-college celebration were:

“Primary Purpose of Exposition:  To eliminate the break in college work caused by five divisional celebrations, on five week-ends of two terms.

Resulting Purpose of Exposition:  To develop the spirit of unity, unity between Iowa State College and Iowa people, unity between AMES and high school students, unity between alumni and students, unity between the students of the five divisions.”

One could easily say that these purposes from that first VEISHEA ninety years ago are clearly not outdated ninety years later, but are still an almost unchanged, central part of our VEISHEA celebrations as this year’s 2012 theme illustrates:  “VEISHEA, A Timeless Tradition”.  In fact, the name of VEISHEA itself reflects the emphasis on unity Iowa State expressed, and continues to express, through its VEISHEA celebrations.  VEISHEA is an acronym for the five divisions which in 1922 made up Iowa State: Veterinary, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture.

1922 Physics float, complete with telescope, Benjamin Franklin, and Galileo.

A central event of the 1922 VEISHEA, as is still the case, was the parade.  The 1922 VEISHEA parade began bright and early at 9 o’clock that Friday, May 12th morning.  As the program states, “The VEISHEA parade…is the first big parade signifying the unity of the five divisions in one all-college exposition. The first part of the parade is a pageant developing the history of Iowa from the prehistoric glacial epoch to the present time; the rest of the parade shows Iowa State as we see it today and demonstrates in a small way what Ames is doing for Iowa.”

As these parade images show, some floats were pulled by automobiles and others by horses. This horse-pulled float shows that “Hort products feed the world.”

In addition to the photographs and program, we have also recently made the programs for the 1922 May Fete and the 1922 Nite Show (which later became Stars Over VEISHEA) available online through Scribd.

Wondering how you can learn more about VEISHEA celebrations and its timeless traditions? Swing by the University Archives to look through our VEISHEA Records (the records are organized by decade, and the finding aids describing the contents can be found listed here under RS 22/12). In addition, we have many of our VEISHEA photographs available online. A selection of VEISHEA film footage can be found on our YouTube channel under Iowa State University Films. You can also page through The Bomb, Iowa State’s yearbook, to see a glimpse of each year’s VEISHEA.  The Bomb available in the General Collection, call number LD2548 Io9b, or in the Special Collections’ Reading Room.

We also have an online exhibit about the history of VEISHEA. The exhibit contains a bibliography listing other resources related to VEISHEA available in our department.  We also have several other blog posts related to VEISHEA: pre-VEISHEA celebrations, St. Patrick’s Day (engineers),  and Stars Over VEISHEA.

These records and histories speak to us about the history of VEISHEA, but also about how those previous VEISHEAs helped set the stage for this year’s.  As the 1922 program states:

“Next year, and in all the years to come, there will be greater and better Veisheas.  Each succeeding year, it is hoped, will see greater and greater numbers of Iowans availing themselves of the opportunity to get acquainted with their college.”

Check out all of this year’s VEISHEA events and activities here!

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The new classroom in use! (And oh yes, if you look closely, the presenter at the front (Laura Sullivan, Assistant Archivist) is holding a real-life 8-inch floppy disk – physical proof about how important it is to keep track of those digital files you wish to keep for the long-term!)

If any of you have ventured up to the fourth floor of Parks Library this year, you may have noticed a few changes going on.  Students have new furniture to study in…and our department has a wonderful new classroom which we have been excited to use for visiting classes! Instead of having to peer over each other to see the artifacts and other items we use for our tours, students can now sit in the comfy seats after a tour of our department and more easily see and hear the accompanying presentations. The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust awarded a grant of $137,150 to the Iowa State University (ISU) Library to create a technology rich classroom, with a variety of computer and multimedia technology.  The classroom will be used for a variety of uses, including instruction by both the Special Collections and Preservation Departments.

The classroom under construction:

Interior of the classroom showing just the studs in place.

The classroom’s frame!

The new classroom in use!

The fourth floor also received new carpeting.

Since its opening in Fall 2011, the Special Collections Department has used the classroom for a variety of visiting classes and groups, including ISU’s Honors Program and Horticulture Learning Community, National History Day students, and classes in English, Higher Education and History. The Special Collections Department hosts many tours and classes throughout the year, and we are looking forward to the opportunities this new space provides!

Last week, we had a group of OPPTAG (Office of Precollegiate Programs for Talented and Gifted) students from all over Iowa visit our department for a special presentation on personal archiving, which included a tour of our department.

Michele Christian (Collections Archivist) giving a behind-the-scenes tour of our storage area. Researchers do not usually get to see the area where our collections are stored since we have closed stacks for the materials’ safety. However, tour groups usually get a brief glimpse!

The classroom really allows us to show students and other visitors the types of materials we have, give lectures, and conduct hands-on activities. We were even able to pack in all of the above, and a tour, for the 45 minute presentation to the OPPTAG students!

Michele showing Margaret MacDonald Stanton’s death mask. During the Victorian era, death masks were used as mementos of the deceased. Stanton’s death mask is a wonderful artifact to show students, both for its artifactual value and teaching opportunity about how times and traditions have changed (or not – during this presentation a student asked if the mask was equivalent to paw prints veterinarians sometimes give to owners after their pets have passed away).

Laura Sullivan (Assistant Archivist, and author of this blog post) giving a brief presentation to the students about how they can be their own archivists. Our new classroom has a wonderful camera which displays images on the two screens in the classroom. I’m explaining to the students about how some materials used to store documents and other materials can degrade over time – such as the warped and shriveled PVC slide holders shown on the screen.

The last part of the presentation included a demonstration on properly sleeving photographs. The students were then able to sleeve some photographs of their own, and we walked around the room trying to answer all of their questions!

Michele and I really enjoyed being able to use the classroom, and we would not have been able to do such a demonstration and hands-on activity without it.  We are looking forward to being able to use the classroom for future presentations!

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Dr. Forker (at left) teaching a golf course February 19, 1957 (photograph from the Barbara Ellen Forker Papers, RS 10-7-13, box 25, folder 1).

Did you know that the first head of the combined men’s and women’s physical education department (now kinesiology) at Iowa State was a woman, Professor Barbara Ellen Forker?  Dr. Forker was a well respected advocate for women’s physical education throughout her career, and the list of her achievements here at Iowa State and nationally is quite impressive.  This year marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX on June 23, 1972.  With Title IX’s 40th anniversary approaching, Dr. Forker instantly sprang to mind as a wonderful faculty member to highlight for this year’s Women’s History Month.

Dr. Forker in 1955 (photograph from University Photograph Collection, 10-7-A, box 782). Wondering what books are on those shelves?  The titles include the expected physical education related books such as Physiology of Muscular Exercise but include others such as Essentials of Reading German, Roget’s Thesaurus, Giant, and The Show Must Go On.

After teaching high school and grade school physical education in her home state of Michigan, Dr. Forker served 22 months in Europe with the American Red Cross during World War II. Dr. Forker began her career at Iowa State College (now University) in 1948, eventually becoming Head of the Women’s Physical Education Department (1958-1974). When the men’s and women’s physical education department were combined to create the Department of Physical Education, Dr. Forker became the first Head (1974-1986). She contributed to the creation, in 1960, of a physical education  major for women here at Iowa State. Dr. Forker was an important part of student groups here on campus, including advisor for NAIADS (synchronized swimming) and “I” Fraternity (honorary for outstanding women athletes). In addition, she taught tennis, golf, swimming, badminton, and bowling.

Dr. Forker (second from left) with other physical education staff, taken around 1950. From left to right: Jane Carswell, Barbara Forker, Virginia Taylor, Germaine Guiot, Harriet Watts, Madge Bowers (photograph from Barbara Ellen Forker Papers, RS 10-7-13, box 25, folder 1).

In addition to her achievements listed above, Dr. Forker also worked with the United States Olympics (1975-1984). President Gerald Ford appointed Dr. Forker as a member of the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports (1975-1977). She also was a United States Delegate in the Second Educationists Session at the International Olympic Academy, in Olympia, Greece (1977), member (1980-1984) of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Executive Board and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Education Council, and Chairman (1984) of the United States Olympic Committee Symposium at the Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress in Eugene, Oregon.

Passed on June 23, 1972, Title IX requires (with a few exceptions) gender equity in education programs and activities receiving federal funding (the contents of the law can be found here). Not surprisingly, Forker was concerned about the implementation of Title IX here at Iowa State.  Her papers (Barbara Ellen Forker Papers, RS 10-7-13) contain a written piece detailing reactions she received from a variety of Iowa State administrators during the early years of Title IX. In her words, she sought to receive these reactions “Because I have been frustrated on many occasions to get the show on the road at my university, I decided this would be a good opportunity to find out just exactly what selected members of the administration think has happened as a result of the first printing of Title IX and how do they foresee the future…”  This document is now available online.

In addition, we recently made available a couple speeches by Dr. Forker:  “The Government and Amateur Sports” and “Amateur Sports and the Federal Government”. Very similar in content, these speeches describe the establishment, background, and issues to be addressed by the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports (Dr. Forker was one of the 14 members appointed by the President to be on this commission).

In 1997, Iowa State University renamed the Physical Education for Women (PEW) Building the Barbara E. Forker Building in her honor. Forker is pictured above at the dedication.

As is the case with almost all of our collections, this blog post can only give you a very brief window into the life and work of Barbara Forker. Many of the other documents within the collection, in addition to those described above, will provide a glimpse into both the difficulties and accomplishments of a leader in women’s physical education during the 20th century. If you would like to learn more, please take a look at the finding aid/collection description for the Barbara Ellen Forker Papers. Interested in taking a look at some of the contents of the collection?   Then please come on up to the 4th floor of Parks Library and visit the Special Collections Department (open M-F, 9-4)!

Interested in learning more about women’s history here at Iowa State?  A selection of our collections are listed in our Women’s Collections Subject Guide. We also have a few archival materials available online through Scribd (such as the War Training for Women at Iowa State College) and Digital Collections. In addition, we contributed images of Carrie Chapman Catt’s suffrage buttons (the finding aid to her papers, RS 21/7/3, is located here) to the Women’s Suffrage in Iowa Digital Collection.

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Today is both International Women’s Day and National Agriculture Day!  Since two of our main collecting areas are related to both agriculture and women, we just had to write up a quick post.  Interested in taking a look at our agricultural collections?  Then take a look at our Agricultural Collections Guide.  Interested in looking at our collections related to women?  We have a selection of these collections listed here, including links to other guides related to women.  This includes a link to the listing of our Archives of Women In Science and Engineering.

Wondering how to celebrate National Agriculture Day (March 8, 2012) or National Ag Week (March 4-10, 2012)?  If you’re interested in finding out more about the history of the day and how it was celebrated in the past, the Special Collections Department holds the National Agriculture Day Records, which contains records documenting the beginning of the celebration through the early 1980s.  More on this collection can be found in an earlier blog post.

Governor Anderson signing the 1974 proclamation for Minnesota Agriculture Day (photograph can be found in MS-66, Box 1, Folder 17).  Other items found in this folder include clippings, newsletters and photographs related to the 1973-1974 Agriculture Day activities of the North Central Chapter of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).

In addition to National Agriculture Day, today is also International Women’s Day.  Women played vital roles in the history of agriculture, and the Special Collections Department has collections documenting this history.  This includes family collections, such as the Wayne O. and Gayle Carns Burchett Papers which contains diaries, 4-H record books and other items documenting the women and their contributions to the family’s century farm (an earlier blog post on this collection can be found here).  The Iva Verona Horton Papers includes Iva’s diary entries briefly noting activities on her family’s farm.  Interested other collections?  A selection of our manuscript collections related to women involved in agriculture can be found here.

The Iowa Master Farm Homemaker’s Guild Records contains a variety of records including scrapbooks documenting the activities of the women in this organization.  The Guild gives out the Master Farm Homemaker Award, which is meant to recognize the contribution that farm women make to the nation as homemakers and as voluntary community leaders. Pictured above is a scrapbook from the collections.  The page to the left contains clippings about Vera Shivvers, who was named Iowa Master Farm Homemaker in 1953.  She was the third woman elected to the Iowa Senate (1963).  The scrapbooks include clippings, programs, obituaries, correspondence and other materials about the Guild and the women awarded the Master Farm Homemaker Award (arranged by the year the women received the award).

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For almost a year now, events marking the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (which began on April 12, 1861 with the Battle of Fort Sumter) have taken place.  Today marks the 150th anniversary of the pivotal Battle of Pea Ridge (also known as Elkhorn Tavern), which took place in northwest Arkansas on March 7 and 8 and decided the fate of the West during the beginning of the Civil War.  The Union won the battle on March 8, when General Van Dorn and his army retreated. The Battle of Pea Ridge was the largest battle in the West, and the battlefield today is the most intact battlefield in the United States.

The Special Collections Department is lucky to have a detailed letter describing the battle from an Iowan’s perspective (the letter is located in the Van Zandt Family Papers).  William Vanzant wrote to Henry and Nancy, his brother and sister-in-law, on March 14th from Arkansas’ Sugar Creek Camp.  William, who had lived in Kossuth, Iowa, had volunteered for the Union Army on August 11, 1861 and fought with the First Iowa Battery.  In the letter describing the Battle of Pea Ridge, William mentions that the last he heard of the confederate General Sterling Price was that “…he was on the other side of the Boston Mountins 20 miles from hear making his way toward Fort Smith as fast as his men could make their legs carry them…”  William describes his own exciting experience, including a bullet which “…pass my side through my canteen but not tetching the flesh…”

Towards the end of the letter, William asks his brother and sister to write often, and to send as many newspapers as possible.  In this day of smartphones and online news, it is hard to imagine what life must have been like for many Civil War soldiers.  They were making history, while at the same time having little to no idea of what was going on in the rest of the country!

The collection contains an ambrotype of William Vanzant (MS 213, box 4, folder 46).  It can be quite startling to view the rather clear image of a Civil War soldier who spoke so vividly in his letters one hundred and fifty years ago, and who you know died only a few years after the photograph was taken.

The cover of William Vanzant’s ambrotype has an image of the United States flag.

Interested in reading more about William’s experience during the Battle of Pea Ridge?  The letter and a transcription are now available online.  Additional stories of other soldiers (including another Iowan) who fought in the Battle of Pea Ridge can be found on the National Park Service’s website.

The Van Zandt Family Papers contains additional letters and a diary by William Vanzant describing his experiences during the Civil War. File 1/67 covers General William T. Sherman’s attempt and subsequent retreat at Vicksburg, December 29, 1862-January 1, 1863 and the Battle of Arkansas Post.  Files 1/68 through 1/73 all concern the Vicksburg campaign and more can be found in William’s diaries.  William died of an unspecified disease in the hospital in St. Louis on February 12, 1864.  His brother Henry collected his body, and apparently his effects, for there are letters to William in the collection also, from friends in Agency and Kossuth, as well as his colleagues in the First Iowa Battery.

More on the Civil War sesquicentennial can be found on many sites, including The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Iowa State’s Digital Collections has made a selection of our Civil War diaries, also written by Iowans, available online.  A blog posting by our department about this Digital Collection can be found here, and a blog posting from the Preservation Department describing preservation work done on the Civil War diaries during the digitization project can be found here.  And, finally, a subject guide listing our Civil War related collections can be found here.

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Interested in learning more about archives from an Iowa State grad (’67)?  Trudy Peterson, who has had a fascinating career in archives, will be speaking about the importance of archiving on February 29 and March 1 at the University of Iowa.  If you are interested in learning more about her career, we have a biographical folder which contains an assortment of articles related to Peterson (RS 21/7/1).  You can also read more about her on the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences webpage on featured alumni.

Peterson to speak on importance of archiving Feb. 29 and March 1

Trudy Huskamp Peterson, one of the leading archivists in the world and the 2011 International Impact Award recipient at the University of Iowa, will present two upcoming workshops on the UI campus. Both events are free and open to the public.

Peterson will present ?Unfinished Business: Transitional Justice and the Role of Records? Wednesday, Feb. 29, from 4-6 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre. In this workshop, Trudy considers the fate of archives in post-conflict situations, such as Bosnia, Rwanda, and other places where the integrity of records are central to the possibility of reconciliation.

Additionally, Peterson will present “Trash, Treasure, and the Act of Archival Appraisal” Thursday, March 1, from 4-6 p.m. in 302 Schaeffer Hall.

For the last 10 years, Peterson has made a career as an archivist for human rights, often at real risk to her own physical safety, consulting on the records of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, records of International Criminal Tribunals, and problematic police records.

For more information on these events, contact Linda Kerber at linda-kerber@uiowa.edu or 319-335-2299.

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Presidents’ Day is around the corner!  Wondering what you can do to celebrate the day? One option is to visit the Special Collections Department!  Have you ever wondered which U.S. presidents have visited the Iowa State campus?  The list includes William Howard Taft (1916, 1917), Herbert Hoover (1923), Dwight Eisenhower (1952), Jimmy Carter (1975), Gerald Ford (1976), Ronald Reagan (1958, 1961)…and the list continues.  Some came before they were president, some during, and some after.

Since the rise of the importance of the Iowa caucuses in the 1970s (for a brief history of the Iowa caucuses, visit the University of Iowa’s election resources), the question of which presidents have visited Iowa State may not necessarily be a question many wonder about.  However, before then a presidential visit to our campus was more infrequent and possibly a larger deal. If you are curious about these visits, news articles and other documents can be found in the University Archive’s collection Presidential Visits (RS 0/6/1).  This collection includes a brief history of presidential visits to Iowa State from a January 1977 Iowa Stater news article (found in the Gerald Ford folder of RS 0/6/1 or January 1977 issue of the Iowa Stater, call number LH1 I6).  Some may remember Ford’s remark “It’s great to be here at Ohio…Iowa State University…” (more of this portion of Ford’s speech can be found in the Iowa Stater article).

In 1976 Gerald Ford was the first incumbent president to visit Iowa State.  Pictured above, Gerald Ford speaking in front of Iowa State’s Fisher Theater October 15, 1976 (photograph from University Photograph Collection, 0-6-A box 8).

William Howard Taft (U.S. president 1909-1913) visited the Iowa State campus twice, once in 1916 when he gave several lectures and in 1917 when he gave the commencement address.  A copy of this address can be found in RS 0/6/1. Taft’s commencement address contains a discussion of World War I, which the United States would soon enter.

William Howard Taft’s procession along campus (above), west of the Laboratory of Mechanics.  The Laboratory of Mechanics and Beardshear can be seen in the distance to the right, and Curtiss Hall in the upper left (photograph from University Photograph Collection, 0-6-A box 8).

Taft descending the steps of Beardshear. If you look closely, you can see a small arrow near the far right column, pointing to one of the spectators in the crowd (photograph from University Photograph Collection, 0-6-A box 8).

Not only do older photographs of campus give us a better idea of past events and what campus looked like in years gone by, but occasionally we also hear from the photographs’ former owners.  Written on the back of the photograph showing Taft descending Beardshear’s steps is “yours truly under the arrow”.  We may not know who “yours truly” is, but pictured above is a close-up of this portion of the photograph, with “yours truly” holding the brim of his top hat. (photograph from University Photograph Collection, 0-6-A box 8)

In addition to the Presidential Visits Collection (RS 0/6/1), you might find additional information on the presidential visits in various publications, including The Iowa State Alumnus (call number LH1 Io9a) and Iowa State’s yearbook, the Bomb (call number LD2548 Io9b).

Curious about other collections we may have related to U.S. presidents?  Search our website, or the library’s search system (if you know the specific collection you are looking for).  One of these collections is the James Raley Howard Papers (MS 157).  Raley was a very active farmer and farm advocate who visited the White House several times.  In addition, he himself was the first president of both the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation).  Another collection you may want to look at is the Nils A. Olsen Papers, which contain Olsen’s diaries.  Olsen was an agricultural economist who worked with Henry C. Wallace to establish a foreign service for the Department of Agriculture.  The diary index at the end of the collection’s finding aid contains the page numbers where Olsen discusses President Hoover (who was not in favor of the Department of Agriculture’s foreign service).

Parks Library, and the Special Collections Department, will be open on Presidents’ Day (February 20, 2012).

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George Washington Carver’s graduation photograph.

Wondering who was Iowa State’s first African American graduate?  First African American faculty member?  Well, look no further!  Scholar, scientist, teacher, and former slave George Washington Carver was Iowa State’s first African American graduate (1894) and faculty member.  If after reading this post you’re interested in learning more, we have a variety of resources available both here in the Special Collections Department and online.  These are listed at the end of this post, and includes the George Washington Carver Digital Collection.  The biographical information below has been selected from our finding aid of the George Washington Carver Collection, which is available for research here in the department.

George Washington Carver became one of the nation’s greatest educators and agricultural researchers. He was born in about 1864 (the exact year is unknown) on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. His father died in an accident shortly before his birth, and when he was still an infant, Carver and his mother were kidnapped by slave raiders. The baby was returned to the plantation, but his mother was never heard from again.

Carver grew to be a student of life and a scholar, despite the illness and frailty of his early childhood. He first enrolled at Simpson College (in Indianola, Iowa). He excelled in art and music, but art instructor Etta Budd, whose father was head of the Iowa State College Department of Horticulture, recognized Carver’s horticultural talents. She convinced him to pursue a career in scientific agriculture and, in 1891, he became the first African American to enroll at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, which today is Iowa State University.

Through quiet determination and perseverance, Carver soon became involved in all facets of campus life. He was a leader in the YMCA and the debate club. He worked in the dining rooms and as a trainer for the athletic teams. He was captain, the highest student rank, of the campus military regiment. His poetry was published in the student newspaper and two of his paintings were exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.

Carver pictured as Quartermaster (staff officer of the campus military regiment), from the 1895 Bomb (photographs after page 102).

Over the next two years, as assistant botanist for the College Experiment Station, Carver quickly developed scientific skills in plant pathology and mycology, the branch of botany that deals with fungi. He published several articles on his work and gained national respect. In 1896, he completed his master’s degree and was invited by Booker T. Washington to join the faculty of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute.

Pictured above in 1928 are Tuskegee Institute President Robert R. Moton, Mrs. Pammel, Louis H. Pammel, and George W. Carver. Carver and Iowa State botany professor Louis Pammel maintained contact after Carver left Iowa State for Tuskegee, and their extensive correspondence can be found online in the George Washington Carver Digital Collection. The originals are located in the Louis Hermann Pammel Papers (RS 13/5/13). Copies are also available in the George Washington Carver Collection (RS 21/7/2).

Carver’s professional work resulted in the creation of 325 products from peanuts, more than 100 products from sweet potatoes and hundreds more from a dozen other plants native to the South. These products contributed to rural economic improvement by offering alternative crops to cotton that were beneficial for the farmers and for the land. During this time, Carver also carried the Iowa State extension concept to the South and created “movable schools,” bringing practical agricultural knowledge to farmers, thereby promoting health, sound nutrition and self-sufficiency.

Curious to learn more about George Washington Carver, and his time here at Iowa State?  You have a few options.  We have a digital collection available online, which contains a selection of materials from our collections (including the George Washington Carver Collection, Louis Hermann Pammel Papers, University Photograph Collection, and others). The Digital Collection includes photographs and correspondence between Carver and his mentor, botany Professor Louis Pammel.  You can also come here to the Special Collections Department and look through our George Washington Carver Collection and the books in our rare book collection.  A list of resources on George Washington Carver is available here, and this includes a link to a listing of books in both the library’s General Collection and here in the Special Collections Department.  Iowa State’s 1894 and 1895 yearbooks, the Bomb, are also available online.