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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.

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Last week, some of you may have listened to Terry Gross interview botanist Nicholas Money on Fresh Air about his research of molds, mushrooms and other fungi. Did you know that Iowa State’s own Professor Lois Tiffany was highly regarded as an expert in mushrooms and other fungi here in Iowa?  The papers of Iowa native and long-time Iowa State University professor Lois Hattery Tiffany were processed last year, and the finding aid for the L. H. (Lois Hattery) Tiffany Papers is available online.

Lois Tiffany

Fondly called “The Mushroom Lady,” Tiffany specialized in mycology (the study of fungi) and taught botany at Iowa State for over fifty years beginning in 1950. Her research included studies of fungal diseases of native prairie plants in Iowa, a 10-year survey of Iowa’s morels, and a study of the fungus flora of Big Bend National Park in Texas. She also participated in the Midwestern mushroom aflatoxin studies of both corn and soybeans (aflatoxins are toxic substances produced by a certain kind of mold, and are most often found on certain types of grains). Her continuing commitment to research led to the naming of a recently discovered Iowa truffle in her honor. The fungus, named Mattirolomyces tiffanyae, was discovered in 1998 in several locations of Story County’s oak woods.

Tiffany also made significant advancement for a woman in the sciences, despite the significant challenges of being a female science professor during the early years of her career. She was the first woman president of the Iowa Academy of Science, the first woman president of the Osborn Club, and the first woman scientist in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to be awarded the title of Distinguished Professor.

Tiffany dedicated her professional life to helping students. She advised hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students and was the long-time advisor of the Botany Club, taking students on field trips all over the country with her colleague George Knaphus. Tiffany also was a supporter of the Girl Scouts, and helped to found and advise a collegiate chapter at Iowa State. Her dedication to her students is evident in the number of her students who went on to careers in the botany field.

Louis Tiffany’s specimen satchel which she used to carry mushrooms and other specimens she collected during her research and other botany trips.

The collection (1940-2010) contains Tiffany’s professional papers. Starting with her own course notes and dissertation research, the collection spans her entire professional career. The collection contains field notes, conference proceedings, academic writings, departmental committee minutes, and many notes and photographs used in her teaching career. Dr. Tiffany was known for her work as advisor to the Botany Club, and included in the collection are photographs and diaries from over thirty years of annual Botany Club field trips all over the country. The papers also include notes from Tiffany’s many professional organizations, her many summers teaching at the Lakeside Laboratory, her participation in Campus Girl Scouts, and records from the Ten Year Morel Study conducted with George Knaphus.

Pictured above is Tiffany at the 2001 Adult Nature Weekend at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory (a field station for Iowa’s state universities located on the west shore of West Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa).  Tiffany is speaking on Ocheyedan Mound, located about 25 miles northwest of the Lakeside Laboratory.  (photograph can be found in box 20, folder 23)

For more information on the Lois Hattery Tiffany Papers, please see the online finding aid:  http://www.lib.iastate.edu/arch/rgrp/13-05-20.pdf.  (If you would like to look at any of the material in the Tiffany Papers, please contact our department in advance.  The materials are stored offsite, and we will need a few days’ advance notice to bring them to our Reading Room.)

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Welcome to the new year of 2012!  With the close of another year, we would like to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the collections whose finding aids went online last year.  We receive hundreds of linear feet of new collections each year, and in addition to these new collections we also work on getting our older paper-based finding aids retyped and up online as well!  Throughout this month, we’ll highlight a few of these new collections and re-typed finding aids finished this past year, but for now take a look at the list below of some of the collections we will not be able to highlight.  Clicking on the collection’s title will bring you to its finding aid.  In addition to letting you know a little about the collections we worked on last year, the list will hopefully give you an idea of the wide variety of collections available here in the Special Collections Department!

Veteran Civilian Conservation Corps Camp #2725 Scrapbook, MS 674

The Veteran Civilian Conservation Corps (VCCC) Camp #2725 was constructed in 1935 in what is now Stone State Park near Sioux City, Iowa in the Loess Hills. Members of the camp were unemployed World War I veterans who helped with construction of the camp and projects designed by the camp technical staff.

PrairieFire Rural Action Records, MS 313

PrairieFire Rural Action was founded in 1985 and based in Des Moines, Iowa. Organized during the 1980s farm crisis, PrairieFire Rural Action assisted Midwestern farmers and their families, and provided advocacy on behalf of farmers.

Milton Sage Robertson Films, MS 325

Milton Sage “Robbie” Robertson pioneered work in crop dusting, inventing a rotary brush atomizer (later known as ICD Rotors) for crop spraying in 1930. The methods used for crop dusting at this time were problematic, and Robertson developed a liquid spraying technique with a rotary brush. Robertson eventually ran his own business, and between 1931 and 1934, Robertson put together film of every known phase of crop dusting and spraying for promotion and to teach pilots the techniques of the business. Robertson used this film as an advertising tool, showing it to farmers and growers during sales meetings. A selection of these films are available on our YouTube channel.

Louise A. Carson and Lucia St. John Cook Papers, MS 314

Louise A. Carson was a resident of Burlington, Iowa during the middle of the 19th through the middle of the 20th centuries. Lucia St. John Cook (born in 1830) was a friend of Louise Carson. This collection contains journals, letters, correspondence, clippings, financial records, and photographs.  Some interesting entries of Cook’s diaries were made in 1850-1851 when Cook describes her journey alone from Farmington, Iowa to Arkansas to teach. Cook discusses meeting African Americans on her trip, her teaching experiences, and educational differences between the North and the South.

Bob Kisken Photographs, MS 596

Robert (Bob) Kisken is a retired teacher from Michigan and now does ranch and farm photography as a hobby. This collection contains photographs taken by Kisken of barns in the Midwest but also includes some from other states and Canada. The barns cover a variety including kit barns from Sears, Roebuck, and Company; red barns; white barns; cantilever barns; German style barns; round barns; brick and wood barns. Also included are rural scenes including homesteads, grain elevators, prairie scenes, and silos.

Women’s Helpful Birthday Club Records, MS 201

The Women’s Helpful Birthday Club originated as a group of farm women in north Grant Township, Story County, Iowa. Begun in 1904, the club was formally organized June 12, 1907, at the home of one of the founders, Mrs. J. I. (Rena) Mather. Rena Mather thought the club should be established so that neighborhood women would have a time to meet and provide more social contacts and cultural activities. In addition to the meetings which often included educational programs, club members also often had a picnic each year and conducted philanthropic activities.

Lauren Soth Papers, RS 16/3/54

Agricultural economist and editor at the Des Moines Register and Tribune. Lauren Soth was in charge of economic information at Iowa State from 1934-1947 and was an editorial writer for the Des Moines Register and Tribune (1947-1954) and editor of the newspaper’s editorial pages (1954-1975) until his retirement. Soth received a Pulitzer Prize (1956) for editorial writing encouraging a U.S.-Soviet agricultural exchange. The collection contains material documenting the U.S.-Russian agricultural exchange of 1955 and Soth’s U.S.S.R. trip the same year, speeches and talks on the Wolf Ladejinsky affair, the oleomargarine controversy at Iowa State University during World War II and agricultural economics. There is correspondence about farm policy in the 1970s and 1980s, and material on agricultural issues such as animal rights, food and export policy, and land usage.

One of many photographs in the collection, above is pictured a few images from the United States farmers trip to Russia in 1955 (found in box 12, folder 5).

Sally J. Pederson Papers, RS 21/7/198

Consultant, editor, and former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, Sally Pederson was born in 1951 in Muscatine, Iowa. She was senior food editor for Better Homes and Gardens and an executive with the Meredith Corporation. Pederson was elected to two terms as Lieutenant Governor (1999-2007) of Iowa under Governor Tom Vilsack. While in office, she was an advocate for people with disabilities.

Black Cultural Center (Ames, Iowa) Records, RS 7/5/4

In 1969, the Black Student Organization at Iowa State began planning for a Black Cultural Center to be located near campus and operated by a non-profit organization. The purpose of the Black Cultural Center is to provide a place for the Ames and Iowa State community to interact and gain a better understanding of black culture and to act as a home away from home for African American students attending Iowa State University. These purposes are carried out through a variety of social activities, cultural events, and lectures. The BCC is home to a library and the Iowa African-American Hall of Fame and it also publishes the student magazine Uhuru (Archives call no. LD2546 U38x).

Frank Robotka Papers, RS 13/9/55

An educator and specialist on agricultural cooperatives, Frank Robotka (1889-1975) worked for many years at the Agricultural Extension Service (1920-1961) of Iowa State University where he became involved with agricultural cooperatives. Robotka continued his study and research on cooperatives at Iowa State until his retirement in 1961. Throughout his career as a Professor of Agricultural Economics, he produced numerous journal articles and topical studies concerning the cooperative movement. (2012 is the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives; if you are interested in taking a look at our other collections related to cooperatives, please take a look at this subject guide)

LaVerne and Ida Noyes Collection, RS 21/7/235

LaVerne Noyes enrolled at Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State University) in 1868 and graduated with a B.S. (1872) in general science as a member of Iowa State’s first graduating class. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Iowa State for the success of his inventions and the promotion of higher education. Ida Noyes received her B.S. (1874) from Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State University). Following her graduation Ida became a teacher. Ida and LaVerne married on May 24, 1877. LaVerne’s achievements include running a hay-tool business, starting a book holder manufacturing company (his Noyes Dictionary Holder sold modestly well), patenting farming machinery, and starting the Aermotor Company in Chicago, Illinois. The Aermotor Company  manufactured some of the first steel windmills and became the leading manufacturer of windmills in the country. During his successful career as an inventor and businessman, Noyes was able to acquire a modest fortune. Noyes enlisted the help of landscape gardener O.C. Simmonds to help beautify the campus of his alma mater, Iowa State. This project resulted in the creation of Lake LaVerne on our campus.

Charles A. Goetz Papers, RS 13/6/17

Charles Goetz attended the University of Wisconsin (1926-1931) where he studied agricultural bacteriology and chemistry and received his B.S. (1932), M.S. (1934), and Ph.D. (1938) in chemistry from the University of Illinois. Goetz pursued his interests in analytical chemistry, electrochemistry, and in fire extinguishing by carbon dioxide. Goetz worked at several corporations, where he invented and received patents for a number of important and useful ideas including the aeration process for whipped cream which allows it to be dispensed from pressurized containers. He also patented a number of fire extinguishing processes and devices for outdoor use on large fires. Goetz was a professor at Iowa State in the Department of Chemistry from 1948 until  his retirement in 1978.

E. Robert Baumann Papers, RS 11/5/55

E. Robert Baumann earned a B.S.E. degree (1944) in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. degree (1945) in sanitary engineering, an M.S. degree (1947) in sanitary engineering, and a Ph.D. (1954) in sanitary engineering all from the University of Illinois. Baumann served as a teacher and researcher during his time at the University of Illinois and then worked at Iowa State University(1953-1991) until his retirement. Baumann’s research centers on water filtration and waste water treatment. He published several books and hundreds of journal articles, research reports, trade magazine articles, and conference papers on diatomite filtration and municipal sewage treatment. His vast experience in sewage systems and filtration led to his work as a civil engineering consultant to cities and private companies throughout his career.

Fred W. (Frederick William) Lorch Papers, RS 13/10/54

Frederick William Lorch, born in Germany, received his B.A. (1918) from Knox College and his M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Iowa. He joined the Iowa State College (University) staff in 1921 as an instructor in English, was promoted through the faculty ranks, and served as Department Head (1942-1959). Lorch was the author of more than 30 scholarly articles and a national authority on some aspects of Mark Twain’s career. He edited several textbooks, including The Trouble Begins at Eight-Mark Twain’s Lecture Tours (call no. PS1338.L6). This work was published posthumously and won the Iowa State University Press Annual Award for the most outstanding manuscript by an Iowa author.

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The photograph above is a winter image of the Iowa State campus in February of 1915.  Beardshear can be see in the distance. (University Photograph Collection, box 348)

The end of the semester is definitely here, and the crowds of students hard at work in the library are a daily reminder that those final weeks are upon us!  Winter break is coming soon.  Ames even received a light dusting of snow last night as reminder!

All physical library facilities, including our own Special Collections Department, will be closed from Friday, December 23rd, 2011 through Monday, January 2nd, 2012.  In an ongoing effort to reduce costs and conserve energy, the University Library will close its physical facilities (including the Parks Library, the Veterinary Medical Library, and the Design Reading Room) for these eleven consecutive days during winter break. For more information on this closing, please visit the library’s news announcement.

If you are curious about the energy savings from past years, please visit this University Library announcement detailing last year’s savings and the Preservation Department’s blog post from last year.

For your research here in the Special Collections Department before the end of the year, please visit us before December 23rd!  We are open 9-4, Monday through Friday.

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The Iowa State University (ISU) Library invites applications and nominations for a new position, the Digital Repository Coordinator. This individual will oversee the creation and management of a campus-wide Digital Repository for ISU, to be administered by the University Library.  The Digital Repository will eventually include scholarly and creative works, research, publications, and reports contributed by faculty, students, staff, and administrative units, as well as special, thematic, and multi-media collections from the Library and the University Archives.  Platforms supporting the Digital Repository will include bepress and CONTENTdm.  This position reports to the Library’s Associate Dean for Research & Access.

The successful candidate will have demonstrable analytical, organizational, planning, and project management skills. Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a rapidly changing environment. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.  Ability to interact effectively with audiences of diverse technological backgrounds.

To ensure consideration, submit application by December 28, 2011.

To view the full job announcement and for application instructions, please visit the vacancy details here.

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Wrestler Dan Gable looking as though he’s ready for his next match!

This Sunday the annual Cy-Hawk wrestling series (Iowa State versus Iowa) will take place at Hilton. As all you Cyclone fans get ready for the competition, you may want to take a look at the documentary video of Iowa State wresting icon Dan Gable. Gable, Iowa State wrestler and future University of Iowa coach, is famous for having only lost one match in his collegiate career. Gable would finish at Iowa State with a record of 118-1. After graduation in 1971 Gable went on to become the 1972 Olympic gold medalist for freestyle wrestling in Munich, Germany, and did not surrender a single point in the competition.

The video profiles Dan Gable’s high school and collegiate wrestling career and includes comments by Dan Gable, his parents, and coaches. The film footage contains many of his wrestling matches including his one loss in the NCAA finals of his senior year against Washington sophomore Larry Owens. This video was produced by the Media Resources Unit at Iowa State University.

Want to learn more about Dan Gable here in the University Archives?  You can check out listings of the collections we have related to wrestling here (look under RS 24/12). These collections will also document Dan Gable’s time here at Iowa State. RS 21/7/1 contains a folder on Dan Gable, and includes news clippings related to his time here at Iowa State, his Olympic victory, and as a coach at the University of Iowa. You can also search the library’s search system for Dan Gable, and then limit your search to “Available in the Library.”  This listing will include resources found throughout the library, and includes those here in the Special Collections Department.

An undated image of Dan Gable from the University Photograph Collection (24/12, box 1959).  Looks like he’s ready to go to class!

We wish the Cyclone wrestlers the best of luck in this weekend’s competition!

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Formation for 1935 4-H Girls Convention at Iowa State College (University).

Thanksgiving is now less than a week away!  What might we have here in the Special Collections Department related to Thanksgiving?  Actually, quite a lot if you are creative about it.  You could search our website to find out all the places where Thanksgiving appears in our finding aids, or pick out a diary or two and see if the writer described Thanksgiving activities.  This post, however, will highlight just one of our rare books from the TX809 call number area (which encompasses books dealing with the cooking of cereals/grains…if the photograph above has not given it away, you’ll have to read more to find out which grain this post will discuss!).

One title which caught my eye as I scanned the TX section for possible cookbooks related to Thanksgiving was  “Indian Corn as Human Food” by Mary S. Scott.  The story of how the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn for food, and was very likely served at that first Thanksgiving, helped justify taking the book off the shelf for a Thanksgiving related post.  The book, published in 1889 in Nevada, Iowa contains an interesting selection of recipes and descriptions about corn by an Iowa woman at the end of the 19th century.  Corn was then, as it is now, an important Iowa crop.  Although we may not agree with everything she writes and the views she has, the book is still an interesting read.  A biography of Mary Sophia Scott can be found here (the book, American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with over 1,400 Portraits…, can be found in the library’s reference section under call number CT3260 .W66a).

If you believe that people’s concern with healthy living is only a recent phenomenon, then this book might help to persuade you otherwise!  One of the goals of Scott’s book is to present an alternative, healthy way of eating a very economic grain.  Scott makes this very clear in her opening chapters.  Her first paragraph states “This hand-book is more in the interest of good living than of mere economy in expenses,-meaning by good living not only by preparation of palatable food, but also food conducive to health, comfort and length of days.”  On page 4 Scott writes:  “To bring the attention of American housewives, economists and philanthropists to the possibilities presented in this immense food supply is the object of this unpretentious book.”

Above is pictured the rebound book, Indian Corn as Human Food (call number TX809.C8 Sco85i )

And another one of her reasons for writing the book was “…there is possibility of danger that some of the customs of the early days that are worth preservation may become obsolete;-and, among others, the making of the very best foods from Indian corn may finally be numbered among the Lost Arts.” (page 29).

Hopefully Mrs. Scott would be happy to know that a copy of her book is housed down the road from her hometown of Nevada here in Iowa State’s Special Collections Department!  If you would like to keep some these “customs of the early days” alive, please feel free to come to our department and take a look at this little book!  Included are recipes for a variety of corn breads, brown breads, muffins, hominy, puddings and other dishes made from corn.  There are even instructions for how to make corn ginger bread, ash bread (cooked in the hearth covered with ashes!) and how to hull corn with potash or wood ash.

If you would like to find out other items we might have related to corn here in the Special Collections Department I encourage you to peruse our website…and narrow down what you are looking for…we have quite a lot of collections and rare books related to corn since it is, and has been, an important research area here at Iowa State for many, many years!  A good place to start might be our subject guide on agricultural collections.

A corn train in 1905.  Iowa State Professor Perry G. Holden established the “corn gospel trains” in 1904 which taught farmers how to select and test seed corn throughout the state.  More on the corn trains can be found here and  in the Perry G. Holden Papers (link to finding aid).

There are also a number of other rare books in our collection specifically about cooking with corn.  In fact, another book in the section had these two tickets carefully tucked among some recipe clippings (found in Corn Products Cook Book, call number TX809 M2 H49x 1910b):

Did the owner of this book attend the Thanksgiving football game?  Or did they tuck the tickets away in the cookbook before the game, only to come across them later?  Perhaps impossible to answer, these bits of ephemera sometimes contained in our rare books, holding their own secret history, are fun to come across and wonder about!

Interested in more about Thanksgiving related items and collections in the Special Collections Department?  Last year’s Thanksgiving post was about recipes from a WOI homemaker’s show, The Homemaker’s Half Hour (scripts from this show can be found in the WOI Radio and Television Records, and throughout a variety of other collections). 

For more on the history of Thanksgiving from our National Archives, you can go here to see various government documents which created Thanksgiving!

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Director, Associate Director and Section Chiefs in the chemical research and development program at Iowa State College (University) which assisted in the World War II Manhattan Project.  Left to Right: Harley Wilhelm, Adrian Daane, Amos Newton, Adolf Voigt, Wayne Keller, C. F. Gray, Frank Spedding, Robert Rundle, James Warf.

The Ames Laboratory began as a chemical research and development program at Iowa State College (University) to assist the World War II Manhattan Project. The program developed an entirely new technology for the conversion of uranium ore to high-purity uranium metal and then used that technology to produce more than 2 million pounds by the end of the war. In 1947, the United States Atomic Energy Commission officially established the Ames Laboratory as a National Laboratory. It is currently a United States Department of Energy research facility operated by Iowa State University. The Laboratory and University share facilities, functions, graduate students, and faculty/principle investigators. After World War II, the Ames Laboratory specialized in rare metals and methods of achieving chemical transformation without the production of toxic waste. The Laboratory has expanded its scope beyond materials research, including research in photosynthesis, hazardous waste analysis, computer programming, quasicrystals, and nontraditional materials.

Fifteen interviews have been completed by independent researcher Sue Futrell and are being transcribed. The finding aid for the Ames Lab Oral History Collection is available online.  Audio portions of the interviews are also available online.

“Little Ankeny” (pictured above) was named in contrast with the large-scale ordnance work located in Ankeny during World War II.  Little Ankeny was a temporary building left over from World War I and housed uranium production on the Iowa State campus from January 1943 until the end of the war. During that time, two million pounds (one thousand tons) of pure uranium metal was made there. Industry came here to learn how to produce the metal, and then the process was turned over to industry. The process was developed and patented by Dr. Frank Spedding and Dr. Harley Wilhelm.  Little Ankeny was located east of the Food Science Building, and a plaque now marks its location.

Dr. Harley Wilhelm developed an efficient way to produce uranium metal for the Manhattan project and was a co-founder of the Ames Lab. The Ames Lab Oral History Collection includes interviews of his family.