“Ghosts of the Suffrage Club” by Research Assistant Amanda Larsen

Leave a comment September 14, 2018 Rachael A.

This year, two talented upperclassmen have joined SCUA through the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) program to help us uncover some of the “hidden histories” of ISU through research into underrepresented communities in the university’s past. They are working on digital exhibits that will serve as a resource for future scholars, and both URA students will be writing blog posts throughout the school year to update you on their discoveries. Today, it is my pleasure to introduce the work of Amanda Larsen, who has chosen to research feminist activism at ISU.

-Rachael Acheson
Assistant University Archivist

 

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Ghosts of the Suffrage Club

When thinking of the early days of campus life, it is easy to distance ourselves from those who were here at the turn of the century. Women on campus had to live in dorms with few exceptions, endure strict curfew rules, and were not allowed to leave the city without special permission. Despite the restrictions to their campus life, women on campus decided to take part in gaining the right to vote. So, they created the suffrage club.

On April 14th, 1916, the newly created suffrage club met for the first time. Around 150 women showed up to vote Ava Johnson as the president, Jeanette Knapp as the secretary, and Katherine McCarrell as treasurer. During the meeting, Dean Katharine McKay and those listed above spoke to the crowd. They goal of the club “was stated to be the support of the suffrage movement in Iowa with particular emphasis on the securing of pledges of votes favoring the suffrage measure to be submitted to the voters of the state in the June election.” One of the first speakers brought in by the “suffrage boosters” was Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the American Woman Suffrage association and former student of Iowa State, for a highly anticipated lecture at the university.

Despite having 150 women at the first meeting, there is little mention of this suffrage club in the archives and no mentions of it in the Bomb (the yearbook).  Ava Johnson, who was the president of the club graduated in 1916, but the suffrage club was not listed within her group involvement.

 

p. 76 in the 1916 Bomb

 

Nor is the club mentioned when Jeanette Knapp or Katharine McCarrell are listed the following year.

 

Knapp is on the far left. 1917 Bomb, page 108.

 

McCarrell is on the far right. 1917 Bomb, p. 110. Katharine’s name has been spelled “Katherine” when mentioned elsewhere.

 

This was not the only suffrage club in Ames, but it is only one created by students at Iowa State. All the clubs in Ames, including the suffrage club, were focused on securing the votes for suffrage during the June 1916 election. The results of the vote were 2671 votes in favor of suffrage in Story County, while only 1606 voted against.

 

From the SCUA Artifact Collection. Suffragists wore buttons like this for a variety of reasons. Many to get people to know that suffrage was on the ballot or to proudly show that they were a suffragist.

 

Newspaper clipping featuring the only known mention in the archives of the ISU Suffrage Club. RS# 22/04/00/01.

 

If you are a part of an Iowa State club or organization and have documents (any inactive records, meeting minutes, photographs, etc.) pertaining to the club, then please bring them to Special Collections on the fourth floor of Parks Library. Those records can be stored for future generations to have a better understanding of your club.

 

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Meet the Author!

Amanda Larsen is in her third year at ISU with a triple major in criminal justice, psychology, and history. She has already proven herself to be a hard worker and innovative researcher, and SCUA is looking forward to watching her project unfold. She hopes that you have enjoyed the post!

Amanda Larsen, SCUA Undergraduate Research Assistant 2018-2019

Welcome Cassandra!

Leave a comment September 6, 2018 Rachel Seale

Hello everyone! We are very excited to introduce our new Curation Services Student Writer, Cassandra Anderson!

Photograph courtesy of Cassandra Anderson.

Cassandra grew up in Creston, Iowa where she spent a lot of her time in her mother’s elementary/middle school library. When she wasn’t there, she could be found hanging out in her grandmother’s libraries in Urbandale, Iowa. Cassandra is hoping to be the third generation of library workers in her family. She is currently a senior here at Iowa State where she is studying English. After she graduates she hopes to attend a graduate program to study library science or archives management. Growing up she occasionally was able to attend the annual American Library Association conferences with her mother and grandmother, and was even able to attend the most recent one in New Orleans this summer. While there, she sat in on a discussion lead by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, and was incredibly excited to learn about her future career! Cassandra will be writing blog posts and sharing interesting finds on our social media accounts. When she is not writing for us, she is working as the student assistant on the AvIAn project here in the library. Welcome Cassandra, we are excited to have you!

Rare Books Highlights: Telling the story of wood betony in a book

Leave a comment August 23, 2018 Amy

Nicholas Culpeper. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Nicolas Culpeper. Oil painting. Published: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The best booksellers are storytellers. They make the book leap off the catalog page and into the imagination, as authors, printers, or book owners are brought to life as vividly as any character in a novel. A well-crafted description, like a bird’s brightest breeding plumage, can take a book from “that’s an area we collect in” to “I’ve got to buy this book!!!”

Take, for example, my recent purchase of a 1656 copy of Nicholas Culpeper’s The English Physitian Enlarged. Culpeper, trained as an apothecary, was noted for his efforts to aid the poor, treating patients for free in his pharmacy near Spitalfields in London. He wrote this book as a resource for people to treat themselves, and–unlike other herbals from the time–included only those plants that grew in England, so that people would not expend valuable time and resources trying to find herbs that were not available.

Leaves identified as wood betony found pressed between pages 162 and 163 of the book. They have been encapsulated in mylar to preserve their excellent condition.

The heading for the catalog description immediately points out a unique feature of the book, “With Wood Betony Pressed between its Pages.” Preserved botanical matter certainly adds interest to the book, but the shrewd cataloger at Pirages pursued the trail of the leaves even further. Noting that the book’s entry for “Wood Betony” appears to be particularly well-used, the entry draws an intriguing connection between the medicinal uses of the plant and the year during which an early owner inscribed his name. I’ll let the catalog entry speak for itself:

One hopes the present copy was of use to former owner Richard Hill, who inscribed his name in it in 1666, the “annus horribilis” that saw both the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. The two leaves pressed between two pages here appear to be wood betony, an herb protective against epidemical diseases; its entry in this text bears the marks of frequent consultation.

Entry for “Wood betony” shows ink and dirt stains indicating that it was seriously consulted.

Thank you, Pirages, for this ready-made story to delight and horrify my audience when I show the book!

Owner’s inscription at the bottom of the last page of the book reads, “Richard Hill his Bowk 1666.”

Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physitian Enlarged. London: printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the printing press in Cornhil, neer the Royal Exchange, 1656. Call number: R128.7 .C857 1656

#TBT Freshman Days

Leave a comment August 16, 2018 olivia

University Photos, Freshman Days 1954

Once again it’s time to head to the bookstore, find your classes, and get ready to hit the books.

Good luck with this semester and welcome back to campus!

Norma Lyon: The Woman Behind the Butter Cow

Leave a comment August 13, 2018 Rosalie

Today’s post is brought to you by another of SCUA’s fabulous student workers, Zoe. She has been processing a collection we have posted about before (see the first and second posts), although today she brings a new perspective to our final post about ISU alumnus Norma “Duffy” Lyon, aka “The Butter Cow Lady” (Collection RS 21/7/280). We hope you enjoy a behind the scenes look at the life of Norma, a woman who helped shape the Iowa State Fair, which is currently happening.

This collection (the Norma Lyon papers, RS 21/7/280) is open for research, and more information can be requested by contacting us.

 – Rosalie Gartner
Lead Processing Archivist

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While many know her simply as the Butter Cow Lady, there is much more to Norma “Duffy” Lyon than just her creamy dairy creations. While working on this collection, I have learned all about her life and career as a sculptor and would like to share what I have learned with you.

Norma “Duffy” Stong, the ISU Harvest Ball Queen, 1948

Lyon was born Norma Duffield Stong, an Iowa farm girl with a passion for animals. In order to turn this passion into a career, Norma studied Animal Husbandry at ISU, earning her Bachelor of Science in 1951. During her time at Iowa State University, her sculpting talents were recognized. The Artist-in-Residence of the University, Christian Petersen, saw an ice and snow sculpture done by Norma and encouraged her to attend his sculpting classes. Thus, Norma began to refine her talent as an artist.

Alpha Delta Pi Winter Festival sculpture, 1949

After graduating, Norma married her college sweetheart Joe Lyon, and the two moved to Toledo, Iowa, to open Lyon Jerseys, where they raised dairy cattle. In 1960, Norma was asked to take over the job of carving the butter cow for the Iowa State Fair.

Norma sculpting her first butter cow, 1960

She carved cows for the fair for the next 46 years, each one unique and showing an exquisite amount of detail that only a master of the craft could accomplish. Her sculptures attracted visitors from all over Iowa, each one wanting a glance at the famous life-sized butter cow.

Norma was not just a sculptor of cattle! During her career, she carved various animal statues at fairs across the Midwest, always returning to the Iowa State Fair to showcase her greatest works. She continued to show her passion for horses in particular, sculpting several over the years.

Horse and foal butter sculpture, Iowa State Fair, 1984

In 1994, with the approval of the Fair officials, Norma expanded her repertoire even further with the addition of people. Her first displayed sculpture of a human subject was none other than country legend Garth Brooks. Fair-goers loved the addition, and from that point on she added many more buttery likenesses of everyone from Elvis to Tiger Woods (with a life sized tiger included)!

Garth Brooks butter sculpture, 1994

It comes as no surprise that Duffy Lyon garnered recognition on a national scale. She crafted butter busts of Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Barack Obama, and a cheddar cheese bust of David Letterman. Norma appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth and the popular talk show The Late Show with David Letterman – she even brought Mr. Letterman a tiny cow carved out of cheese.

Norma with one of her final butter cows, undated

A statue stands in Norma’s home town of Toledo, Iowa, commemorating the famous Iowa State Fair butter cow, and in turn celebrating her term as its sculptor. The town’s welcome sign proudly declares, “Home of the Butter Cow Lady!” Norma carved her final butter cow in 2006, passing on the mantle of butter sculptor to her mentee, Sarah Pratt. While the job title may have passed on to a new sculptor, Norma “Duffy” Lyon will always be remembered as the original Butter Cow Lady.

 

Norma Lyon at the unveiling of her commemorative statue in Toledo, Iowa. Undated.

Been Farming Long? – 75 Years of the Ag 450 Farm

Leave a comment August 10, 2018 Brad Kuennen

When Iowa State University was established in 1858 it was as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm. The name alone sent a clear message that the school’s founders wanted the students who attended Iowa State to have a strong understanding of and practical education in farming. Of course, the students didn’t all want to be farmers, but that’s a different story.

This announcement for the Iowa Agricultural College (now known as Iowa State University) shows scenes of campus as it appeared in 1884. The map also identifies the extent of the campus farm at the time. (University Photograph Collection, RS 0, oversized).

In the early years, the male students were required to spend several hours each day helping out on the school’s farm and in the shops, while the female students were assigned to help with domestic chores in the kitchens and laundry. There was no tuition at Iowa State at the time, so perhaps it seemed like a fair trade. Within 20 years, the practice of requiring students to work on campus became impractical due to the complexities of organizing and supervising a workforce of hundreds of students.

This issue of Hormel Farmer from 1969 highlighted the Ag 450 Farm course at Iowa State. (Ag 450 Farm records, RS 9/8/3, Box 1, Folder 1)

By the early 20th century, the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm had become the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and had grown to become a highly respected agricultural and engineering school. Students in agriculture still gained practical experience working with livestock, understanding how to maximize crop yields, and learning the business principles of farming. However, faculty still felt that the experience of the agriculture students could still be improved.

In 1938, Dr. William Murray, professor of economics, identified that his students had no real experience in actually managing a farm. He set out to change this. Murray convinced the college administration to purchase a farm and to provide a budget for the first year of farm operations. He argued that the cost of operation should not be high—if the students apply what they learned in class then the farm should be profitable.

Members of the Ag 450 Class of 1971. Female students have much more representation in the program now than they did in the first half of the program’s history. (Ag 450 Farm records, RS 9/8/3, Box 17, Folder 5)

The college administration agreed to the proposal and purchased a 187-acre farm just south of campus in the fall of 1942. The first formal Agriculture 450 class was offered in January 1943 with Murray as instructor. In March, the farm was turned over to the management of the students with the only limitation being that each expenditure and sale be approved in advance by the instructor. The farm has been in the care of students ever since.

Students in the AgEds 450 course (as it is now called) are responsible for every major decision that happens on the farm. As of 2018, the students farm around 1400 acres of land, some of which is rented or custom farmed. They are responsible for determining which crops to plant, caring for the livestock, purchasing equipment, and marketing the animals and grain that they raise. According to the Ag 450 Farm website this farm remains “…the ONLY completely student managed farm at a land grant university in the United States.”

Students raising a grain bin on the Ag 450 Farm. Students plan, purchase, and manage the entire operation of the farm. (Ag 450 Farm records, RS 9/8/3, Box 17, Folder 10)

If you are interested in taking a deeper dive into the history of the Ag 450 Farm, feel free to visit Special Collections and University Archives. The Ag 450 Farm records contain account books, photographs, scrapbooks, clippings, and more documenting the history of the Ag 450 course and the farm itself. Stop in and take a look!

NHPRC Update: Record Group Roundup

Leave a comment July 31, 2018 Caitlin

When migrating the finding aids into the new archives management system, SKCA, the Manuscript Collections and the University Archives Collections each had their own unique challenges. The Manuscripts Collections are all created by different groups and people, and although they might be related by subject or geographic area, they are organized separately from each other. On the other hand, the University Archives collections were all created by the same creator – Iowa State University – and are organized by record series in a way that reflects the structure of the University – colleges, departments, centers, etc.

This can be seen in the numbers assigned to the University Archives collections. They follow a format of #/#/# (sometimes this is 4 or 5 numbers).

The first number is for the college or administrative unit, the second number is for the department, and any numbers after that are for the sub-group – equivalent to a series in a Manuscript Collection.

For example, let’s take a look at RS 9/10, the record group for the Department of Animal Ecology. The first number is a 9 because this department is in the College of Agriculture and Life Science. News clippings about the Department of Animal Ecology have the record series number 9/10/0/0, because 0/0 is the subgroup number that is always used for news clippings.

When browsing by record group on our website, this is how department records are currently displayed:

University Archives finding aids were previously created at the sub group level, (I.E. RS 9/10/0/5 above).  This meant that there could be multiple finding aids for records from the same department. Additionally, only sub-groups that had a finding aid were listed on the website, so although the sub-groups without finding aids were all open for research, researchers had to come in to the archives to find out that they existed.

SKCA is able to link information about everything from the same department together, so that everything related to RS 9/10 is now in one finding aid.

You can see in the screenshot below the full list of sub groups that actually exist for the Department of Animal Ecology, which we are now able to provide at least basic information about if there is not a box listing. These were always available for use, but now they will be much easier for researchers to find.

This is how the records for the Department of Animal Ecology will look in SKCA:

 

The information about the department and the materials is at the top, and then information about each sub-group can be seen by scrolling down, as shown here:

 

Alternatively, by clicking on the specific sub-group in left hand menu, you can view the information about just that material, such as the Alumni newsletters seen here:

The related resources section includes clickable links to the papers of faculty members or records for research programs related to this department that have their own separate finding aid.

It will be exciting how much more of the University records will be find-able online as a result of the new system! Stay tuned for more information about when SKCA will be going live and the features it will have.

 

This project has been generously funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Tornado Country

Leave a comment July 27, 2018 Rachael A.

Tornadoes have always played a major role in Iowan life, as those still reeling from the images of last week’s destruction realize all too well. In fact, as one might guess from the nickname “Cyclones,” this aspect of life is something the area is known for. SCUA has not, at least in the past, actively collected documentation of any major storms, but evidence of their ongoing existence has crept in here and there nonetheless.

Below is a rare original page of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper housed in Special Collections. Also known as Leslie’s Weekly, the paper — based in New York — was famous for depicting scenes from breaking news via wood block engravings in an era before photographs were commonplace.

Page from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, MS 390, folder 9

For folks who like more tangible evidence of the past, you should check out the “tornado souvenir,” a hand-carved piece of birch bark from a storm on campus in 1924, which is held in our artifact collection. See more pictures here.

Piece of birch bark with lettering (by hand): “Tornado Souvenir June 28, 1924[.] From Tree near Margaret Hall I.S.C. Ames, Iowa” (Artifact #2001-024). Photograph by Rachel Seale.

It’s a bit further away from home geographically, but you can also glimpse damage wrought by an earlier storm (circa 1890-1910, though the image itself is undated) in Grand Mound, Iowa if you visit SCUA’s Flickr page, where we have a lot of other cool pictures, as well. You will need to click through to the link to see it, but this particular image was scanned from a glass plate negative, which can be found in the Descartes Pascal Papers, MS 91, Box 6, Folder 8.

Because tornado damage is an ongoing reality in this part of the country, Iowans have cultivated a lifestyle of helping neighbors re-build and recover from these periodic disasters. And ISU students have been no exception, as all current members of the Cyclone football team demonstrated by donating their time last Saturday to help with clean up in Marshalltown. Nor have our athletes been the only students historically inclined towards lending a hand. The 1967 Bomb article below evidences that multiple Greek organizations provided monetary donations and were well-represented on site after a tornado struck Belmond, IA in October 1966, even if the author of the article presents a rather biased interpretation of their motives.

The Bomb 1967, page 403

Best wishes, then, from SCUA for a speedy recovery to everyone who got caught in one of the most recent storms. And for those of you who are newer to campus, or to the state, don’t forget to check out the University severe weather protocols and/or some safety tips from ISU Environmental Health and Safety.

Unusual Finds from the Knowles Blunck Architecture collection

Leave a comment July 25, 2018 Rosalie

Today’s blog post is a highlight into a new collection currently being processed by Ashley, one of the many wonderful student workers SCUA has working behind the scenes to make sure  we are able to provide access to as many collections as possible. Our student workers help with just about any task you can imagine; if you’ve ever been to SCUA then you’ve benefited from all the work they do!

This collection came to us late 2016, and is very large – about 60 boxes. The architectural firm that donated it, Knowles Blunck Architecture, has many connections to ISU and we hope that the students studying in the Department of Architecture will benefit from the many projects and years of experience documented in this collection. The Collection contains images of sites during all phases of the design and build process, award submissions, floor plans, and much more.

Once this collection is fully processed and available for researchers, we’ll post again with more details!

Rosalie Gartner
Lead Processing Archivist

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At the beginning of May, I started working on MS 703, a collection donated by an architecture firm called Knowles Blunck Architecture. This Des Moines based firm donated materials chronicling their various projects through documents, slides, photos, and negatives. My previous project largely contained only paper records, so I was excited to work with new formats. When I was first assigned this project I was informed of two things: all the materials were organized into binders and this collection could contain dirt from the firm’s job sites. Since then I have gone through many boxes filled with binders and the dirt is not actually the strangest material I have discovered in this collection. While processing the collection I have found wallpaper, photos with speech bubbles drawn in, and even homemade panoramas.  These materials stuck out to me, so I decided to focus on them in this blog post.

Dirt from various job sites can be found in some of the binders.

This picture shows how much dirt from a work site came out of a binder.

 

 

These swatches of wallpaper were taken during a renovation Knowles Blunck completed in the East Village in Des Moines, Iowa. They were in a building located at 420 Locust Street and are undated.

Wallpaper samples taken out of 420 Locust St, Des Moines, IA during renovation.

 

When Knowles Blunck was Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck, the firm worked on an addition to Drake Legal Clinic in which they added a mock court room which can be seen in this homemade panorama. This collection has contained many photos taped together to show a larger range of certain rooms.

This shows the full layout of the panorama they created by taping together 15 individual photographs.

 

Another view of the panorama shot.

 

This photo is also from the addition at Drake Legal Clinic. It was taken in a room containing audio visual equipment. This photo is not the only photo I have discovered with writing on it, but it is the only one I have seen with a speech bubble.

This shows one of the doodles added to a photograph in this collection.

 

I am still processing this collection, but once I have finished I will write a blog post announcing that it is open to researchers. Also, be ready for an upcoming post sharing Knowles Blunck’s connection to Iowa State University, including our very own Parks Library.

 

#TBT Bicycle Club

Leave a comment July 19, 2018 olivia

University Photos box 1644

In honor of RAGBRAI coming to Ames on Tuesday the 24th, here’s a picture of the women of the Bicycle Club in 1898.  The scan is taken from a glass slide with some deterioration which is why there is some fading (but hey, the photo is 120 years old!)

Good luck to all the RAGBRAI riders next week, and feel free to make the archives one of your stops while you’re in Ames!