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Iowa State has quite a number of Olympic gold medal winners in freestyle wrestling, including the well-known Dan Gable.  Pictured above is Glen Brand who was one of the first Iowa State alumni to win a gold medal (1948).  He graduated in 1950 in civil engineering.  The original photograph can be found in the University Photograph Collection (RS 24-12-A, box 1963).

The 2012 Olympics are now in full gear – only one week left until the closing ceremonies!  Did you know that Iowa State has quite a few alumni who have competed in the Olympic Games?  (More on how you can find additional information here in the Special Collections Department can be found at the end of this posting.)  Below is a listing of our alumni who have received Olympic medals:

Glen Brand: 1948 gold medal in wrestling

Nate Carr: 1988 bronze medal in wrestling

Dan Gable: 1972 gold medal in wrestling

Jeff Grayer: 1988 bronze medal in men’s basketball

Danny Harris: 1984 silver medal in 400 hurdles

Kevin Jackson: 1992 gold medal in wrestling

Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco): 1984 gold medal in 400-meter hurdles

Ben Peterson: 1976 gold medal in wrestling

Cael Sanderson: 2004 gold medal in wrestling

Chris Taylor: 1972 bronze medal in wrestling

Sunday Uti (Nigeria): 1984 bronze medal in 4×400 relay

Although it would be too extensive to highlight all the medal winners listed above, there are a few we’ll take not of in this post.  More on current and past Olympians with Iowa State connections can be found in the Thursday, July 26, 2012 issue of the Iowa State Daily.

We should not leave out Ron Galimore from this post.  Galimore (1981 speech communications) was the first African American to be named to the U.S. men’s gymnastics Olympic team.  Unfortunately, he was unable to compete in the 1980 Olympics due to the United States’ boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.  This was due, in part, to the USSR invading Afghanistan.

Ron Galimore is pictured (far right) on the cover of the 1981 Cyclone Gymnastics Media Guide (RS 24/08, box 1, folder 7).

Nawal El Moutawakel (1988 physical education) has a very impressive list of firsts, in addition to winning a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1984 Olympics for Morocco.  She was the first Iowa State woman, the first Arab woman, the first African woman, the first Muslim woman, and the first Moroccan of either gender to win an Olympic gold.  Not only that, she had a perfect 1984 season at Iowa State, and won the gold medal after her freshman year at Iowa State.  1984 was also the first year the 400 meter hurdle race was held for women.  She is active internationally in promoting sports for women, and in 2004 served as Chair of the Olympic Evaluation Commission.  In the 2016 Olympics she will chair the Olympics coordination commission (and her impressive list of firsts continues – she is the first woman to ever chair the Olympics coordination commission)!

Nawal El Moutawakel was honored in the 1985 Women’s Track Media Guide on page 10 (RS 24/23/00/06, box 1, folder 1).

Iowa State’s current wrestling head coach, Kevin Jackson (1991 human sciences), won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.  He transferred to Iowa State for his senior year and became Iowa State’s wrestling Head Coach  in 2009.

Cael Sanderson, ISU student-athlete in wrestling, finished his Iowa State career as the only undefeated four-time champion in NCAA history (159-0) in 2002.  Two of Cael’s brothers, Cody and Cole, also wrestled at Iowa State with impressive records of their own.  Cael won a 2004 Olympic Gold Medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and was formerly Head Coach of Iowa State Wrestling (2006-2009).

And one cannot forget Dan Gable who won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling in 1972.  More on Dan Gable can be found in a previous blog post.

One resource for finding information on Dan Gable is the 1969-1970 Iowa State Wrestling Media Guide, where he is pictured on the cover and has a feature on him inside (RS 24/12/00/06, box 1, folder 1).

More on Iowa State wrestlers who competed in the Olympics can be found in a recent Iowa State Daily article.

Wondering about how you can find more information on Iowa Staters who have competed in the Olympics?  The University Archives maintains biographical files on Iowa State students where you can find news clippings and other publications (RS 21/7/1).  Please note that the files on alumni and former students are not comprehensive, but if they made the news there is a decent chance we will have a file with news clippings.  Additional information on the athletic career here at Iowa State of current and former Olympians can also be found in various records found under the Department of Athletics.  Good places to start are often the media guides, programs and news clippings.  Alumni who have gone on to work at Iowa State, such as Cael Sanderson and Kevin Jackson, can be found under the departments where they  worked.  Sanderson has his own collection (RS 24/12/51), which primarily contains news clippings (1999-2011).  We also have a folder of news clippings related to Kevin Jackson under RS 24/3/1.

Photographs can also often be found in the University Photograph Collection, although sometimes you will need to look in other places for images, such as the media guides or the Bomb (Iowa State yearbook).

Occasionally you will find photographs unrelated to the athlete’s sport.  Shown above is a photograph of wrestler Glen Brand (gold medal in 1948 freestyle wrestling).

For more on another Iowa Stater who was very much involved in the Olympics, please see our post on Barbara Forker or the finding aid describing the Barbara Forker Papers.

A selection of recent Iowa State publications related to the Olympics, many of which are articles in the Iowa State Daily, can be found in the library’s new Digital Repository (a blog posting by our new Digital Repository Coordinator, Harrison Inefuku, can be found on the Preservation Department’s blog).

If you’re curious about other athletes from the state of Iowa who have won Olympic medals, the recent issue (July 2012) Iowa History Journal has an article by Don Doxie, “Olympic dreams blossom in Iowa”.  The periodical is available both in the General Collection (most recent issues in the Periodical Room) and here in Special Collections under call number F616 I59x.  In addition, the July 5, 2012 issue of the Iowa State Daily has a listing of ISU alumni who have recently competed in the Olympics.  Curious about other Olympic medalists?  The official website of the Olympic movement has a database of medalists.

We wish all the current 2012 Olympians who attended Iowa State the best of luck in the 2012 Summer Olympics!

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We are happy to announce that the papers of Iowa State’s first president, Adonijah Strong Welch, are now available online!  In addition to documenting his life here at Iowa State and the early history of our university, the papers also shed light on how our first president viewed and presented a new educational movement which was taking place in our country.

An early view of campus circa 1897.  Old Main, the second building on campus after the Farm House, can be seen on the left.  When it was built (1864) and for many years after, it held the entire college.  Morrill Hall (built 1890) is located on the far right.

The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act is today (Monday, July 2nd).  The Morrill Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, on July 2nd, 1862.  What is so important about the Morrill Act, you may ask?  The Morrill Act established land-grant universities by granting states (if they accepted its terms) land and land script to fund higher education in agriculture and the mechanic arts.  Iowa State, on September 11, 1862, was the first to accept the provisions of the Morrill Act.  Although plans for the State Agricultural College and Model Farm (informally Iowa Agricultural College, now Iowa State University) had started earlier, the funding helped get the new agricultural college on its feet.   Iowa Agricultural College had been founded on March 22, 1858 when Governor Ralph P. Lowe signed a bill to establish a State Agricultural College and Model Farm “which shall be connected with the entire agricultural interests of the state.”

When the Morrill Act was signed, not only was the country in the middle of a civil war, but the industrial revolution was taking place.  Change was occurring, and public education needed to catch up to the rapidly changing needs of the country and its citizens. Agriculture, technology, and the mechanic arts were all important players in the industrial revolution.  The “industrial classes” needed an appropriate education, and this was the intent of the Morrill Act.

Adriance and Buckeye Harvesting Machinery catalog cover, 1896.  As the cover’s famous Daniel Webster quote states, “When tillage begins, other arts follow.  The farmer therefore is the founder of human civilization.”  Notice the industry in the  background (from the Lawrence H. Skromme Agricultural Machinery Literature Collection, RS 21/7/227).

Each state which accepted the Morrill Act’s provisions needed to use the funds:

“to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.”

Adonijah Welch (Iowa State’s first president) was often asked to address farmers’ gatherings, horticultural meetings, and breeders’ conventions.  In many of these speeches Welch expresses his ideas on the “liberal and practical education” that the Morrill Act helped expand here in the United States.  Reading through his speeches can be fascinating, and gives us an idea of how the first president of our university saw Iowa State’s place in this land-grant movement.

Adonijah Welch

Below are just a few examples from the Adonijah Strong Welch Papers (RS 2/1):

Inaugural address:  “When the industry and commerce of many generations had produced comparative wealth and leisure, recognizing tardily their own intellectual necessities, planted, at last, the rude germs that have since, as the centuries revolved, grown into the great Universities of Europe. But modern science and art have wonderfully quickened…The railroad no longer follows, but leads civilizations…A magnificent structure devoted to industrial science, rising towards heaven with its noble towers, is finished, furnished, and peopled with students…The college and new orchard are planted side by side, and will ripen their fruits together…Learning and labor, leaping the gulf that lay between, have joined hands, each lending aid and dignity to the other…” [pages 1-2]

Old Main, the building Welch is probably referring to above in his inaugural address “rising towards heaven with its noble towers.”

Problem of a Reasonable Education - in his conclusion of this speech, Welch states with no uncertainty the necessity for the education land-grant universities were to provide:

“Nevertheless, the need of a special training in the facts and principles that underlie each line of industry, is so urgent that it cannot be overstated.  The vast annual losses to the country which spring from lack of industrial education, baffle all attempt at numerical statement.  The values that go to waste from incompetent farming, the destruction of life in our cities from defective ventilation and drainage, the wholesale slaughter which follows defective rail road engineering, are mere trifles compared with the sum total of yearly loss in life and money born of technical incapacity. ”

Read more of Adonijah Welch’s speeches, correspondence, and other materials online.  A biography and description of the Adonijah Strong Welch Papers can be found in the finding aid.  Resources in the Special Collections Department which will provide more detail on the relationship of the Morrill Act, the land-grant movement, and Iowa State can found in our Morrill Act Subject Guide.  Some of the resources in the library’s General Collection are listed here and online resources here (includes more on the Morrill Act).  Also check out the display on the first floor of  Parks Library (as you enter, head towards Bookends), and the University Museums exhibit “The People’s College: the Morrill Act and Iowa State,” on the ground floor of Morrill Hall.

Finally, if you have time today at noon, pause and take note of the 150 tolls of the Campanile’s bells in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Morill Act.  And if you’re not on campus or unable to make it outside, you can view it on the live webcast!

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This month your usual reporter, Laura, is getting a break. Instead you get to read about the exciting world of the University Archives from me, Brad Kuennen, Library Assistant. Please note: Laura had nothing to do with this blog post other than asking me to do it. She may yet regret that decision.

This week Iowa State welcomes over 1000 teenagers to our campus for the 2012 Iowa 4-H Youth Conference. In honor of their visit I will be sharing my 4-H story, though it is pretty much limited to working with the historic 4-H records that we have here in the archives.

I’ll admit it, I was never in 4-H. I never wanted to be in 4-H. I never much cared for livestock or animals. When I was younger the barns were the one place I used to stay far away from when our family went to the county fair. Maybe it was just the smell, but I always preferred the tractor sheds to the animal barns.

So you can imagine my less than enthusiastic response when I learned that I was being assigned to organize our Iowa 4-H records. That was over two years ago and now that the work is finished I have to admit that I have gained newfound respect for 4-H.

Jessie Field Shambaugh. In 1904 she brought the idea of boys and girls clubs to her school in Page County, Iowa.

As every good 4-Her knows, 4-H was started in Iowa. Well, not really. Apparently someone in Ohio beat us to the punch, but Iowans played a crucial role in the development of the 4-H movement. Iowans like Cap E. Miller, Jessie Field Shambaugh, and O. H. Benson helped guide the movement of “club work” for rural youth from a local level to one of statewide and national recognition. Even today, Iowa maintains one of the strongest 4-H programs in the country which is definitely something we can be proud of.

In the early years of 4-H in Iowa, the clubs were strictly separated between boys and girls. Boys studied agriculture and girls studied home economics. Boys competed in livestock shows and corn growing while girls competed in baking contests and dressmaking. There may have been some girls who showed livestock, but that was very unusual at that time.

One of the best parts about going through our earliest records is looking at all of the photographs. Each annual report, and there was one report made for boys clubs and one for girls clubs every year, is full of photographs, reports, and programs. Our collection of Iowa 4-H records also includes scrapbooks created by the State 4-H Club Historians. Sorry guys, but the girls tended to do a much better job of scrapbooking than you did. One notable exception is a photo scrapbook created by Paul Sauerbry which provides a wonderful account of 4-H in the 1920s. Sauerbry was a member of the 1928 Iowa delegation to the National 4-H Camp and must have created this scrapbook several years later.

1929 Iowa Delegation to the National 4-H Camp. Paul Sauerbry, who makes a mean scrapbook, stands second from the right.

As I was working with these materials I caught myself thinking about what life must have been like on a farm in rural Iowa. For most kids life was the farm. Sure, there was school to go to, but after school was finished there were a lot of chores to finish on the farm. Socializing with the kids down the road was probably not an option most afternoons. When boys and girls clubs were introduced, it had to be very exciting for the kids. Yes, they were going to learn some useful skills, but the club meetings also provided an opportunity to socialize. At a time when many farms were still without telephones and electricity, the chance to talk with other kids must have been quite a treat! And the trips some kids got to take! A lot of kids at that time hardly ever left their own county, but during the summertime hundreds of kids would gather at Iowa State for the annual convention. And each year several lucky kids would get a chance to attend the National 4-H Congress in Chicago or attend the National 4-H Camp in Washington D.C. In the 1920s and 1930s, that had to be an amazing experience!

Photograph of Iowa girls 4-H members who attended the 1929 annual convention. This formation was created on the lawn in front of the home economics building at Iowa State.

Going through the boxes I came across some other books. These had me a little confused. They looked like scrapbooks, but they were full of project records and some had photos and writings. I was told by our resident 4-H expert (so titled because she was in 4-H as a youngster) that these were record books. As it turns out we have record books of several former members. The James Kearns Papers contain his 1934 award-winning record book along with many of his medals and ribbons.

A page from the 4-H record book of James Kearns along with his beanie hat from the 1934 National 4-H Congress and other medals and ribbons.

Speaking of medals and ribbons and stuff, the University Artifact Collection also contains dozens of other 4-H items. For example, we have samples of each of the incarnations of the girls’ 4-H uniform through the years. The early dresses were all homemade. Other artifacts in our collections include pins, buttons, belt buckles, mugs… the list goes on and on.

4-H Poultry Club, circa 1920s. This image is from the Paul Sauerbry 4-H Scrapbook.

If I have learned one thing about 4-H after spending many hours waist-deep in these records it’s that my perception of 4-H was completely wrong. I always assumed it was just for people who liked to take a nap with farm animals at the county fair. Don’t get me wrong, it is for those people, but for so many others as well. What struck me most was that aspect that has been a part of 4-H since the earliest days–teaching children and young adults about leadership, responsibility, and taking pride in one’s work. That pride is evident on the faces of kids from the 1920s and, I can only imagine, will be displayed just as cheerfully on the faces of kids in the 2020s.

If you have Iowa 4-H records or artifacts you would like to donate to the University Archives, please contact us. We would love to give those materials a permanent home here so that future researchers can look back in time and see what role 4-H played in the lives of Iowa’s youth.

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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.