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Crowds watching canoes navigate Lake LaVerne during the 1934 VEISHEA.

As American Archives Month draws to a close, we thought we would write one final post about how to find materials here in the Special Collections Department.  Our previous post provides examples of online resources for figuring out what archives are all about, but we thought we should provide you with something specifically for our department here at Iowa State!

We receive a whole wonderful variety of questions here.  Sometimes researchers know exactly what they want, and at other times only a general idea.  We sometimes receive questions such as “what do you have about the history of agriculture?” and “what do you have on the history of the university?” (the entire University Archives contains records and books documenting the university’s history).  However, more often than not they are more specific questions such as “what can I find out about the person Lake LaVerne is named after?”  Hopefully after reading this post everyone will be more familiar with the resources we have to help researchers find what they need in the Special Collections and University Archives!

LaVerne Noyes (from University Archives Photographs, Box 1532)

This post will focus on that last question:  what can I find out about the person Lake LaVerne is named after?  Let’s assume we do not know the LaVerne’s full name.  On our homepage, if you simply type “LaVerne” into the search box, the Laverne and Ida Noyes Collection is one of the first collections which appear.  After reading the finding aid for this collection (from which you will learn that LaVerne was a member of Iowa States first graduating class (1872)!), you may wonder about the history of Lake LaVerne itself.  Are there any photographs, films, or other records about Lake LaVerne?  One place you might want to take a look at are our subject guides, which can be found from our homepage (these are an especially good place to go if you just want to see the types of collections we may have on a certain topic; they often contain brief abstracts on the collection and its creator(s)):On the subject guides link, you will see a broad range of subject areas.  Once you click one that fits your research area, there will often be a variety of subject guides from which you can select.  For Lake LaVerne, the “ISU Campus Master Planning Resources in Special Collections” would be a good one to select.  There you will find that the Facilities Planning and Management, Buildings and Grounds Division Records (there you will find a folder on swans and ducks – which primarily contains news clippings on the Lancelots and Elaines which have graced Lake LaVerne since 1943). The Philip Homer Elwood Papers have a number of papers about the Iowa State campus, and you might find something in there about Lake LaVerne or about the campus planning which was going on at Iowa State in the early part of the 20th century.  (You will also find this mentioned in the Laverne and Ida Noyes Collection.  Box 1, Folder 10 has a letter which mentions the report written by the Olmsted brothers – for more on the Olmsted Report read this blog post.)

Landscape architecture students sketching at Lake LaVerne in 1942.

Another place to go for information on our collections and the history of Iowa State is our exhibits page.  For Laverne Noyes and the building and history of Lake LaVerne, a good place to go would be the Iowa State University Sesquicentennial Exhibit, where the second link on the right will bring you to Iowa State University Campus and Its Buildings, where you can go to the section about Lake LaVerne.

Interested in finding out about other alumni collections we may have, or finding other papers of people associated with Lake LaVerne?  (For those who are not aware, archives keep papers and records of creators together for a whole variety of reasons.  Here in the United States this is often called the “principle of provenance” and more on this can be found in the Society of American Archivist’s Glossary of Archives and Records Terminology).  People associated with Lake LaVerne include President Raymond Pearson (who was president during Lake LaVerne’s construction and his papers contain the Lake LaVerne-O.C. Simmonds report; Simmonds was the landscape architect Noyes hired to investigate possible improvements to the campus) or Anson Marston (Marston helped restore Lake LaVerne, and a number of documents relating to this are in his papers).  You can either search our website or look at the appropriate record series (arranged hierarchically) under our University Archives listing.

Looking for photographs?  You can visit our Flickr site.  Other sites can be found from here. On Flickr, if you type “Special Collections Department, ISU Photostream” into the search box and click on our name in the selection which appears, you can search the photographs we have upoaded.  You will then see all of the photographs of Lake LaVerne we have on Flickr (however, please note that we HAVE NOT scanned all of our over one million university photographs; if you would like to see more, please come and visit our department). Although most photographs are on Flickr, you might also find some (including documents) on the Digital Collections website.

Lake LaVerne area under construction in 1933, when attempts were made to reduce the silt and other sediment build-up in the lake.  This photograph, along with many others, can be found on our Flickr site.

How about films?  You can either search our Films subject guide available here, or just check out our YouTube channel (however, please note again, that this channel DOES NOT contain all of our university films, but only a small selection).  You will find a variety of films, such as this one from around 1946 which includes Lake LaVerne:

Or this one of campus scenes from around 1936 which shows the filling of Lake LaVerne:

In addition to the University Archives, our department holds manuscript collections.  Our manuscript collections contain records by creators not necessarily related to the university, but often are related to the university’s research strengths such as agriculture, science and technology.  In your search for collections related to Lake LaVerne, you may want to just search the search box on the manuscript collections listing page, or take a look at our manuscript subject guides and look under landscape architecture.

There is a lot to explore on our website, so please do so if you are interested!  Of course, you could also search the library’s search system (where you can find books, films, and other resources on Lake LaVerne…or your research topic) or come on up to the fourth floor of Parks Library to visit our department and/or ask us your question(s)!  If you are interested in finding out about our main collecting areas, you could also take a look at our mission and collecting policy, available online.

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Archives are exciting…just as much as this 1943 Cyclone football game appears to be!

October is American Archives Month!  What is American Archives Month?  It’s a month to celebrate  archives.  In addition, it is a month in which archivists around the country focus on raising awareness of archives and what archives have to offer.  If you are a regular follower of the Special Collections Department blog, you may have read past blog posts which has some basic information about our department.  When this school year first began, we had a post giving a general idea of what we have here.  For last year’s American Archives Month, we had a blog version of a tour of our department.

After reading the posts listed above and perusing our website and our catalog records available through the library’s search system, you may still have other questions about how to use an archive.  We hope to someday create our own tutorial for our department, but for now we’ll list for you below some fun creations others have made which might help you get a better idea of what archives, and archivists, are all about.

The Archives of American Art have put together a wonderful blog post called “Our Archivists’ Toolkit” in which staff members have written brief descriptions of their favorite tool to use in their daily work.  What a wonderful idea – we wish we had thought of it first!  Take a look and find out about the variety of devices archivists use when hard at work.

The Archives Society of Alberta has an interactive tutorial which allows you to take a tour of a generic archive.  The tour includes a research room, stacks area, processing room, preservation lab, and an archivist’s office (including the bookshelf)!

A view of our collections storage area, showing boxes of university archives collections.  Don’t worry – this is only a small portion of our archival collections!

Yale University’s Manuscripts and Archives have put together a very detailed online tutorial which helps researchers learn how to find primary resources and do research in an archive.  They have tried to make the tutorial helpful to researchers using other repositories.

Ever wonder how to handle rare materials, especially rare books?  The Folger Shakespeare Library has put together a wonderful video on YouTube giving you the details:

 

If you still have questions after checking out the resources highlighted above, please do not hesitate to visit us and ask!

When you come and visit, here’s the view of our Reading Room which you will see.  The Reading Room is where researchers look through our archival collections and rare books.

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Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recently announced a traveling exhibit, Rewriting the Book of Nature, now open in the Molecular Biology Building (open to the public until October 29).  The exhibit commemorates Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday (he was born February 12, 1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication On the Origin of Species (first published in London on November 24, 1859).  If you are still interested in learning more after viewing the exhibit, the Special Collections Department has a variety of options a short block away on the fourth floor of Parks Library!

Our early second edition of On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life (call number QH365 .D259o)

We hold the “second edition” of On the Origin of Species (the entire title is:  On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life).  The identification and differences between the second and first editions are explained here.  Basically, the first printing of the book sold rapidly, and the publisher had to quickly prepare for another printing, but made some small changes before doing so.  These editions are often confused, and one can see that that was the case with our copy since “first edition” has been carefully written on the flyleaf.  One of the fun aspects of a rare book is the evidence of a book’s history in the notations often left behind by previous owners.

Title page of our early edition.  One way to tell that this is a very early edition is that there are only two quotations on the page to the left.  Later editions had three (see below).

The Special Collections Department holds several editions and copies of On the Origin of Species (call numbers can be found by searching here).  For instance, we have an edition printed here in the United States dated 1860.  As with all rare books, this particular book holds its own history and provenance which is often impossible to fully determine.  The first flyleaf contains several iterations of “John C. Dalton, 499 W. Huron St.”  Was the person trying to remember Dalton’s address?  Who was this person (one of the owners at one time was a James E. Gross)?  Who was John C. Dalton?

Title page of the second edition described above.

A John Call Dalton happens to have worked in the sciences in the area of experimental physiology in New York City.  499 W. Huron Street in New York City is about 6-10 miles from the present locations of where he worked (College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Long Island College Hospital) when this second edition of On the Origin of Species was published.  Maybe this was the John C. Dalton, or maybe someone completely different (6-10 miles is a rather long way away from 499 W. Huron!).  Who knows?  Just one more example of the mysteries each rare book, or any book more than a few decades old, holds.

               John C. Dalton’s name and address can be seen written numerous times above.

In addition to the most famous of Darwin’s works, we also hold other publications by Darwin.  These can be found by searching the library’s records (the search system can be found on the library’s e-Library).

The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (the two orange volumes) and the American edition of On the Origin of Species (pictured on top).

One of these works holds yet one more example of how a book’s value does not necessarily come from just the information on the pages, but also from the book’s own history and the various owners of the book.  We have the two volumes of Darwin’s The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (published in 1897).  These volumes (call number QH365 D259va2 1897) were once owned by Iowa State graduate and suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt.  More about Catt can be found by taking a look at her collection’s finding aid and previous blog posts here and here.

Carrie Chapman Catt’s bookplate.

In addition to rare books, we also have collections related to Darwin.  For instance, the Louis Hermann Pammel Papers contains a paper (found in RS 13/5/13, box 22, folder 2) about Charles Darwin.  We also have an Evolution/Creation Collection.  The Evolution/Creation Collection was created as an artificial collection by Iowa State University’s Special Collections Department in the early 1980s as a response to an increased interest of the campus community after a series of campus lectures took place on creationism and evolution.  The collection contains copies of articles, correspondence, speeches, debates, court cases, presentations, and publications relating to the evolution/creation debate and its role in public education.  The finding aid for this collection can be found here.

Of course, scans of many of other copies of the books described above can be found online, in addition to Darwin’s papers and manuscripts.  In addition, a census of the extant copies of of the first edition of On the Origin of Species is being put together.  More on this can be found here, in addition to online versions of Darwin’s papers and manuscripts.

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Central campus (more or less the area around present day Curtiss Hall, Beardshear, Catt Hall, and the Campanile/Memorial Union)as it appears today.

Fall Semester classes began almost a month ago now!  New Iowa State students have hopefully become more familiar with the campus and its buildings, and may have even established their favorite places to study, relax, or chat with friends.  Most students have probably hurried mulitiple times through central campus on their way to a class, meeting or campus event.

As a new or long-time Iowa Stater you may or may not have taken the time to ask how and why our central campus was designed the way it is.  If you did…and you are still wondering…or if you never did, and now would like to know…the Olmsted Brothers’ recommendations for campus design and improvements has recently been made available online.  The report might shed at least a little light on the history of central campus, and at least one impassioned controversy involved in its development!

Iowa State’s central campus area in 1904.  In the distance one can see Margaret Hall (girls’ dormitory) to the left and Catt Hall (then Botany Hall) to the right.

The Olmsted Brothers (landscape architects and son and stepson of the famed Frederick Law Olmsted who designed New York City’s Central Park – and not Iowa State’s campus, as one century-old myth goes) were hired as consultants in 1906 to to give recommendations on the future plans for the campus design and layout.  In A. T. Erwin’s 1966 reminiscence (Professor of Horticulture, and member of the Public Grounds Committee) entitled “The Days of Yore at Iowa State”, Erwin related that the passage of a mileage tax around 1900 had provided funds for major buildings of Iowa State’s central campus (the reminiscence can be found in the Arthur Thomas Erwin Papers, RS 9/16/16).

According to Erwin, the number of students attending Iowa State had grown drastically from its beginnings almost fifty years ago, and even in just the previous ten years.  He says that the student body was approaching the 1,000 mark in 1900, and had only been at 300 about ten years before.  The campus needed additional buildings for the increased size.  Erwin relates that the Buildings and Grounds Committee had discussed an overall landscape plan for an orderly development of campus, and an agreement had not been reached.  Erwin then suggested to President Storms that an “outstanding landscape architect” be hired, and the Olmsted Brothers were chosen to provide recommendations.

Another view of central campus (a campus horse carriage can be seen in the foreground) in 1906, the year the Olmsted Brothers submitted their report.

Their report, which recommended that the proposed location for the Agricultural Hall be moved so that it lined up with Beardshear and recommended modifying the location of campus roads and the railway to create a more pleasing aesthetic, upset many in the campus community.  In addition to the report itself, the University Archives holds the records of the Public Grounds Committee (RS 8/6/69) which contains reactions to the report, correspondence with the Olmsted brothers, and a summary of a conversation held with the Olmsted Brothers.  Included is “An Appeal to the Alumni” from the Alumnus, which is the “bearer of unwelcome news” and decries the proposed changes and the destruction of the beautiful campus.  The article states:

“Every graduate of the college must regret the radical change in plans for our loved, beautiful campus.  This change from the natural or English-park style so carefully planned, and tried for nearly forty years on our grounds, to the formal or French style, so artificial and as we believe so unsuited to a room situation like our own, has been accepted by the authorities and the first ground was broken the latter part of September.”

The controversy involved in the Olmsted brothers’ report not only sheds light on people’s love for the campus in the early part of the 20th century (which definitely continues today!), but is also an interesting window into one of many debates which probably occurred in this country when architectural and landscape changes were taking another major shift.

Above is a well-loved image of sheep on the central lawn near the Campanile.  The photograph was taken around 1905, close to when the Olmsted Brothers wrote their report.  Even though this photograph was taken over 100 years ago, when major changes were taking place on campus, one can almost picture a similar scene in the same place today.  Despite all the changes, new buildings, and major increase in the number of students attending Iowa State, the central lawn has remained for students to enjoy!

In conclusion, I must point out one major misconception often stated about who designed Iowa State’s early campus.  Myths will inevitably start about an institution, and Iowa State is no exception!  In the “Appeal to Alumni”, the author mentions that the Iowa State campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.  As stated above, this is in fact not the case.  Iowa State’s first president, Adonijah Welch, designed much of the original campus.  It is interesting, however, to see the long-standing assertion in an article written over 100 years ago.  This myth still continues to this day, but hopefully readers of this blog post can help straighten the record!  It is just one example among many of how people need to double and triple check their facts, no matter how much closer a statement was written to when the supposed fact occurred!

Another view of central campus, this time from 1897.  In the distance Old Main, which burned in 1902, can be seen to the left. Morrill Hall is to the right.

To find out more about the history of the Iowa State’s central campus, please take a look at the Olmsted Brothers’ report now available online.  The University Archives has a variety of resources for finding out more about the history of this report and other campus plans including news clippings and articles about the campus located with the Public Grounds Committee Records (RS 8/6/69), minutes of the Public Grounds Committee, 1911-1928 (RS 8/6/69), K. A. Kirckpatrick’s bachelor’s thesis from 1909 entitled “A Landscape Plan for the Campus of Iowa State College,” (call number C Ob 1909 Kirckpatrick) and reminiscences written by Public Grounds Committee member and Professor of Horticulture Arthur Thomas Erwin which can be found in his papers (RS 9/16/16).  A wonderful resource on the history of the campus and its buildings prior to 1979, H. Summerfield Day’s Iowa State University’s Campus and Its Buildings, 1859-1979, can be found online.  We also have a collection of articles, news clippings, and other publications on campus buildings (RS 4/8/4).  Writings by Iowa State’s first president, who had a significant role in planning Iowa State’s original grounds, can be found in the Adonijah Strong Welch Papers (RS 2/1).

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A view of Morrill Hall and the Hub in 1908.  Morrill Hall used to house, among other things, the college library.  The Hub, seen to the left, was originally a station for the Ames and College Railway. The University Archives holds thousands of photographs documenting campus, students and university activities.

In the last few weeks, campus has become busier and busier as students have returned.  Then it really got busy as fall semester classes began last Monday, August 22!  New students, faculty, and staff have begun familiarizing themselves with Iowa State and what different offices and departments have to offer.  I thought I would take this opportunity at the beginning of the school year to give a brief introduction to what you can find here in the Special Collections Department.  Before diving in, however, please note that most of our collections are stored in closed stacks.  This means that patrons are able to use our reading room (with a wonderful view of campus!), and will need to ask at our reference desk for the collections and/or books they wish to use.  Items housed here, however, cannot leave the reading room or be checked out!

So what exactly do we have?  The Special Collections Department houses rare books and historical records, many of which are related to Iowa State’s major research areas of science, technology and agriculture.  Our archival collections often primarily include primary documents such as diaries, correspondence, research materials, photographs, and scrapbooks.

1904 sketchbook of an Iowa State alum, Alda Wilson.  A description (called a finding aid) of the Alda and Elmina Wilson Papers can be found here.

The Special Collections Department has both a University Archives and Manuscript Collections.  Our University Archives collects and makes available records of enduring value which document the history of Iowa State University, its administration, programs, services, and members of its community.  These include records from departments, offices, faculty members, students, and alumni.  Examples include the Anson Marston Papers, Louis Hermann Pammel Papers, Barbara Ellen Forker Papers, and the Agriculture 450 Farm Records.

Anson Marston in 1892.  Marston was a very accomplished engineering professor here at Iowa State.  In addition to his teaching duties, his accomplishments include developing the Engineering Division into a prestigious program,  establishing the Engineering Experiment Station (1904), designing the water tower (Marston Water Tower), initiating the building of Engineering Hall (Marston Hall) and supervising the building of the Campanile and the restoration of Lake LaVerne.

Blueprint of Marston Water Tower.  Those familiar with campus will know that it is located behind Marston Hall, between Hoover and Sweeney Hall.

The Manuscript Collections document individuals and organizations not necessarily directly related to Iowa State, but which often document the university’s mission.  Examples include the Hugh Hammond Bennett Papers, Margaret J. Black Papers, Iowa Citizens to Save the Ledges State Park (CSL) Records, and American Society of Brewing Chemists Records.

You may want to check out our website for more information including our subject guides and collections listings.  We also have various online exhibits, including one created during our sesquicentennial about various aspects of Iowa State’s history.  Other online exhibits can be found here.  Links to related sites such as our YouTube channel, Flickr, Scribd, Facebook page and others can be found here.  And, finally, a small selection of our collections can be found online at Digital Collections.

Last year we created a miniature tour of our department – in blog form.  Please take a look here if you’re interested in finding out more about archives and what our department looks like behind the scenes!  Also, if you are interested in looking at our materials, please visit us anytime Monday through Friday, 9-4. We are gradually adding descriptions of our collections to our website, but not everything is there yet.  If you can’t find a description or listing of what you’re looking for, please feel free to ask.

When entering our reading room, you will first see our reference desk with a friendly (oh yes…we’re always friendly!) archivist waiting to assist you!

Finally, please check out previous and future posts here on our departmental blog!  We try to periodically highlight both existing and new collections.

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The plain and simple cover of the 1930s era football manual recently donated to our University Archives – inside is some wonderful insight into the Cyclone football team of that time.

A football manual from the 1930s was recently donated to the University Archives, and may have even been written by George Veenker, the football coach at that time.  In paging through the manual, you only came across a few photographs.  Even so, the manual is itself a wonderful picture of the spirit and advice given to football players years ago!  It is fun to imagine the manual tucked away in the dorm rooms of every football player, being read diligently every night (really – we’re sure they did!).

The manual opened to the first page (Introduction).

The manual contains an introduction which describes the reason for the booklet:

“If after being told by a coach about a certain rule, a play or what to do under certain conditions, each player would know and remember his job, the coaching of football would be a bed of roses.  If, after having it repeated a certain number of times, all would get the instructions, it would still be alright…”  The manual goes on to say that that, however, does not happen on a regular basis and “Some boys will pick it up reading it in the quiet of their rooms quicker than in the hustle and rush on the field…IT IS FOR THIS PURPOSE THIS NOTE BOOK HAS BEEN ASSEMBLED.”  (And yes, this final sentence is in all caps!).

The bulk of the book contains advice and strategies for the game.  When one looks at the photograph below from a 1938 game, one can only wonder how many of those players were following the advice contained in the manual!

1938 football team

One of my favorite sections is the “Rules and regulations on the care and use of this book” in which the manual explains that “There is a lot of valuable dope in this book which, if gotten into the hands of our opponents, would ruin us…It is secret to the extent that it is the way we really are doing things.  It is valuable to them only to that extent and it is plenty.”  Players are not to share the manual with anyone, including their other football players!  The final part of the section explains that the book is to be eventually turned in and not kept by the player – one can only wonder how many Cyclone football players owned this particular manual while on the team…or if it was the coach’s own personal copy!

The manual contains wonderful pieces of general advice, often in found in all-caps.  An example found in the “Morale” section states:  “IT NEVER DOES ONE ANY HARM TO HAVE HIGH AMBITIONS AND IDEALS, IF TEMPERED WITH COMMON SENSE AND ABILITY TO STAND DISAPPOINTMENT” (many of these are great sayings anyone, whether or not a football player, would benefit to keep in mind!).  Another fun section to read through is the “More than Poetry” section.  One paragraph states “Be sure to dance during the season.  You have lots of energy to spare anyhow.”

Jack Trice and his teammates in 1923.

One final part of the book I would like to highlight is the page about Jack Trice, and the entire section could be thought of as equivalent to these sayings found throughout since it is quite clear the author meant for Jack Trice to be an example to current football players.  The manual states “He had the right attitude, the right spirit and a fine sense of loyalty.”  I won’t quote it at length here, but I highly encourage visitors requesting the manual to take a look at this page!  (More information on Jack Trice can be found in the finding aid for his papers and on our Flickr page).

The gym plaque mentioned in the section on Jack Trice.

The manual closes with a March 4, 1933 editorial, “There’s Something to Cyclone ‘Spirit’”, by Harold Ingle, sports editor of Iowa State Student.  One can think that this manual might be one of those “seeds” mentioned in a paragraph of the editorial:  “When we take note of the heroes who are now here and consider what they are doing to remain, we know that there has been planted here a virile seed that cannot die out.  Repeat to us the hardships that our pioneer classes endured to plant this seed, and we will tell you of the proud and courageous children who are carrying on in face of even greater difficulties.”

The football manual came to us in fragile condition, and the library’s Preservation Department did a wonderful job in making sure the manual will be  well-preserved for future generations!  Please take a look at the Preservation Department’s blog post about how the manual was preserved.  If you would like to find out about other records we have in the University Archives about football and other athletic teams, click here for a listing of the various collections’ finding aids.

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Frederica Shattuck (above) had her students perform one-act plays at the Iowa State Fair during the early part of the 20th century.

Today is the first day of the Iowa State Fair!  Today’s state fair is full of a variety of events events such as “music, magic, mimes and more” as the Iowa State Fair’s website states.  What entertainment was offered in years past, and how were Iowa State students involved?

Iowa State students performing at the Iowa State Fair in 1921
(from University Photograph Collection, 13-23-G, box 1221).

During the first half of the 20th century, Frederica Shattuck was an instructor and professor (1907-1956) of public speaking here at Iowa State.  She created “The Little Country Theater” as an Iowa State Fair exhibit, which were one-act plays presented free to the public and continued for eight years.  The collection of her papers (RS 13/23/51) here at the Special Collections Department contains a folder on the Iowa State Fair and “The Little Country Theater” from the years 1922-1924 (box 2, folder 3), and our University Photograph Collection contains photographs of some of the performances.

Below is one of the programs for the 1923 performances at the Iowa State Fair (RS 13/23/51, box 2, folder 3):

If you would like to see if you can find out more about these one-act plays performed at the Iowa State Fair, please come on up to the Special Collections Department.  In fact, while you’re up here you can take a look at the exhibit in our Reading Room about 4-H!  More about 4-Hers involved in the State Fair can also be found throughout the 4-H Youth Development Records (RS 16/3/4).  Those who might want to read about plans for past Iowa State Fairs, and brief reports of past fairs might want to take a look at the Annual Iowa Year Book of Agriculture (call number S61 Io9i).  Some volumes are available here in the Special Collections Department, and a more complete run is available in the General Collection and on microfilm.

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This post will be a little different than most – it will not be about our collections, but rather the CIA annual meeting Tanya Zanish-Belcher (Head of our Special Collections Department) and I attended about three weeks ago (July 11).  And, yes, CIA in this case does not stand for the federal government’s Central Intelligence Agency – but rather Consortium of Iowa Archivists.  (The CIA’s founders, however, decided that since the professional organization of Iowa’s archivists would have both the word “Iowa” and “Archivists” in the name, the acronym naturally had to be CIA).

Every once in awhile archivists do, indeed, get out of the archives and meet fellow archivists to learn about what others are doing and, perhaps, bring back some of what we’ve learned to our own institutions.   This meeting of about 25 Iowa archivists was no different.  The Hoover Presidential Library and Museum graciously agreed to host the meeting at their archives, and during the meeting the staff gave an interesting presentation on their collections.  Another wonderful part of the  meeting was talking with our Iowa colleagues, finding out what they had been doing this past year, and sharing stories, struggles and advice with each other.  Most of the morning’s meeting therefore consisted of reports from attendees on what their institutions had been working on.

Pictured above is the (very, very small!) house where Herbert Hoover (31st President of the United States) was born.

Although only a brief summary of what some Iowa archivists are working on, below are a few highlights (the full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the website shortly):

• Kirkwood Community College reported on how they had been digitizing collections.
• Grinnell College reported on their work with Archon.
• Luther College is finishing up its sesquicentennial celebration.  The sesquicentennial has been very busy for the college archive’s staff, which recently doubled to include two people.  Project Archivist Sasha Griffin was recently hired to help with the Journeys to America project.
• Loras College submitted an HRDP grant proposal for digitizing glass plate negatives depicting Dubuque’s entire workforce in 1912.
• Iowa Women’s Archives (at the University of Iowa) has worked with the State Historical Society of Iowa to provide digital access to suffrage collections located at the University of Iowa and other Iowa archives (including Carrie Chapman Catt’s suffrage buttons from here at Iowa State!).
• University of Iowa’s Special Collections Department is digitizing their Civil War diaries and experimenting with crowd sourcing (allowing people to access the images of the diaries online, and from these the general public can create and submit transcripts of the digitized diaries).  The University of Iowa also  recently completed an online exhibit on “LGBTQ Life in Iowa City, 1967-2010” and received an honorable mention from OutHistory.org, which sponsored the competition.

Various other items were discussed after lunch, and afterwards we could choose to either have a behind-the-scenes tour of the Hoover Archives, or receive a guided tour of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site grounds.  I took the tour of the grounds, since I was curious to find out about the grounds and Hoover’s history in his childhood hometown of West Branch (Iowa). The Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is located on the site where Hoover was born and where he and his wife are now buried.  Below are a few photographs of the grounds (see above for the house where Hoover spent his first few years).

Above is the inside of Hoover’s birthplace cottage.  In addition, the grounds include buildings as they may have appeared during Hoover’s childhood, such as a Quaker meeting house (West Branch was founded by the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.  Hoover and his family were Quakers, and people have speculated about how this background may have influenced him.)

Hoover was buried on a small hill near his birthplace.  As I stood on this hill, I loved the idea that his grave overlooks his birthplace.  You might be able to see it in the photograph above – it’s the very, very small speck of white between the trees in the far distance.

And, finally, there are patches of native prairie on the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site grounds.  The lovely patch near Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover’s gravesite is pictured above.

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We now live in the early 21st century, but what was life like in Iowa a hundred years ago?  There are many resources here in the Special Collections Department which can help shed light on this question, but this post will highlight a collection which recently had its finding aid made available online:  Joseph C. Reasoner Reminiscences (MS-182).   Reasoner was a life-long resident of the Humboldt, Iowa area.  As an adult, he took over the operation of his family’s farm and also worked on the hog cholera vaccine for the Fort Dodge Serum Company.

The reminiscences in this collection cover a wonderful range of topics – some of which, such as Iowa storms, can still be recounted by residents of Iowa today (although the experiences might be a bit different!).  Reasoner created many of the reminiscences for his grandchildren so that they might have an idea of what life was like when he was a boy.  Topics include his early school days, farming, his involvement in the hog cholera vaccine, stone quarries, ice harvesting, Iowa storms, rag doll corn tests, and various trips.

Reasoner in 1975, with some of the artifacts he donated to the Special Collections Department in front of him.  He is probably wearing on his right hand the hand corn husker (Artifact 2011-R001.002).  See below for a close-up photograph of the corn husker.  (Photograph located in MS-182, Box 1, Folder 1).

The “Common Sense Husker No. 3 Pat. 4-26-04″.

During the heat of this summer, and as the in-season fruit and vegetables continue to change as the weeks go by, his reminiscence on food preserves and preservation might be interesting to read.  How did people preserve their food before refrigerators, especially during Iowa’s hot and often muggy summer days?  Reasoner describes how he and his family kept food cool during the summer with a cooling tank made of wood and cooled with well water (pages 6-7). He discusses food preparation and preservation, how his family kept food cool in both the winter and summer, and storage of fruits and vegetables over winter.

The topic of preserving milk and cream comes up quite frequently in the food preservation reminiscence. As I read through the transcript, one of the passages which struck me was his remembrance of his father pouring cream over his pie – and that “today” (1965), with the benefit of fridges and freezers, Reasoner used ice cream instead:

” ”Course today we’d go to the refrigerator and get a big helping of ice cream and put on it and that would be pie a la mode, but our a la mode was just the cream without it being frozen.  And I guess probably it had just as many or more calories in than what you would use today.” (page 13)

If you are interested in taking a look at any of Reasoner’s reminiscences, please come on up to the Special Collections Department. (But please excuse the construction which is now taking place on the fourth floor – a new classroom is being constructed!).

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Old Main, one of the first buildings on the Iowa State campus (However, from 1858-1898 Iowa State University was called the State Agricultural College and Model Farm).  Histories of the building can be found here and here.

In addition to our archival collections, rare books, photographs, and films, the Special Collections Department also holds thousands of artifacts, many of which document the history of Iowa State.  This spring spring semester, senior anthropology major Jennifer Lambert conducted her senior research project on the hammer our department holds which was used to help build Main Hall, and was used for other building and maintenance work at Iowa State for many years during its early history.  Old Main, after the Farm House and cattle barns (now gone), was one of the first buildings on the Iowa State campus and was used for a wide variety of purposes.  Jennifer generously gave us permission to use parts of her paper for a blog post. Sections from Jennifer’s paper, Hammering Out Local History: Material Culture Studies at Iowa State University, are  included below. [Please note: the photographs, and accompanying captions, were added for the blog post].

“The agricultural college building was purposefully designed to house professors, students, and staff, along with their classrooms and living areas, all under one roof.  After the stresses of the Civil War had passed, funds became available in 1864 to start construction work on the college.  The project’s architect was C.A. Dunham with Jacob Reichard as contractor and by the fall of 1868 ‘Old Main’ was completed and stood as a five story tall building fashioned after the Mansard period of architecture.  Old Main’s facilities included: library, bell tower, balconies, lecture room, two octagon tower staircases, recitation rooms, steward’s room, laboratory, bathroom, dining room, kitchen, scullery, store room, washrooms, laundry, servant’s rooms, housekeeper’s room, armory, professor’s rooms, twenty-one student rooms, thirty rooms on the fourth and fifth floors, and a cellar.  When the first recognized term started on October 21, 1869, there were seven professors, 136 male students, and thirty-seven female students attending the college.  President Welch asked for two wings to be added to Old Main in 1870, and both were completed by May 1872…”

Campus circa 1875.  The enormous size of Old Main (and the amount of work it must have been to build!) can be better imagined from this early image of the Iowa State campus.  Old Main is the large building to the far right.  Look at those small houses to the left in comparison!  A fire destroyed the north wing and devasted other parts of the building on December 8th, 1900, and two years later the south wing was burned by fire (completely destroying the building).  Main Hall no longer remains, and is now known as Old Main.

“…Many people moved to Ames to work on the first Old Main construction project and some brought their own tools with them, such as hammers.  One of these workmen, Oliphant P. Stuckslager, is tied to not only to the history of one hammer and Iowa State University, but to the history of the United States, as well.

Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania on December 4th, 1837, Stuckslager grew up and moved to Iowa, where he married Emily Harlan and was the father of four children.  During the Civil War he served with the 44th Iowan Volunteer Infantry and was honorably discharged September 15th, 1864.  Stuckslager worked as a mechanic, carpenter, and contractor with his first job being to assist in constructing Iowa State University’s Old Main.  In a note left with President Friley, Mrs. Alice Stockwell (Oliphant’s daughter) and Mr. Harley Stuckslager (Oliphant’s son) explain that the hammer that was donated to Iowa State University was purchased in Marshalltown, IA by their father ‘for the express purpose of being used in the construction of the first building on the grounds of the Iowa State Agricultural College in 1868′ (Friley).  Stuckslager moved both his family and his hammer to Ames in 1868 so that he could work on the Old Main building, and their house still stands today at 812 Douglas Ave.  After spending a full life helping to build town businesses and residences, Stuckslager passed away on July 5th, 1908 and is buried in the Ames Cemetery…”

The Hammer

Lambert concludes that Stuckslager’s hammer is a claw hammer, made sometime after 1840: “…Claw hammers have two styles depending on their weight: a 13oz-24oz hammer is used for carpentry purposes, and a 24oz-28oz hammer is used by framers to chop, split, and pry apart structural wood.  The Stuckslager hammer weighs in at 18.7oz and can be placed in the claw hammer category that is used for carpentry work.  Hickory is used in hammer handles because it is a natural vibration dampener, but is prone to break if the user overstrikes and hits the handle on the wood instead of the head.  Observations of the Stuckslager hammer and comparisons with other hickory handled hammers shows it to most likely be made from hickory, and that it also has damage to the wood surrounding the head’s base from overstriking.  Hammer heads are forged from steel for strength and durability, often heat-treated for toughness and wear resistance.  This treatment focuses on the striking face, the eye where the handle is inserted and on the claws.  Looking at the Stuckslager hammer, the striking face and claws are a different color and texture from the rest of the head, but this could also be from wear and not heat-treatment.  A ground striking face that is canted slightly toward the handle to center hammer blows and a double-beveled nail slot are two other indicators of a carpenter’s claw hammer.  Both of these indicators can be observed on the Stuckslager hammer as well.

Other observations of Stuckslager’s hammer include the indentations of nicks and grooves on the head and handle, as well as cracks in the wood shaft seen through the top of the hammer head.  These indications of wear, along with the uneven coats of varnish on the hickory handle, all attest to the conclusion that the hammer was used repeatedly and diligently repaired.  The wear and documentation surrounding the hammer prove that it is from 1868, but it can’t be proven if the hammer was made then or earlier.  The making of the hammer has been lessened to a time span of between 1840 and 1868 because its styling matches David Maydole’s from the 1840s.  Considering the information currently available, the Stuckslager hammer can be between 171 and 143 years old.”

Thanks to Jennifer Lambert for letting us share parts of her informative paper.  We wish her all the best as a graduate of Iowa State University!