CyPix: Corn Season

This is my first summer here in Ames – and in Iowa – and I have been watching corn sprout in the fields with interest and excitement. Special Collections and University Archives, however, is no stranger to the plant – we are home to a number of collections regarding the farming and sale of corn.

 J.E. Prowdfoot with his champion ten ear of corn samples and trophies. From the Cooperative Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics photograph collection, RS 16/3

 Other corn-related collections here include Garst and Thomas Hybrid Corn Company Records, MS 173; Iowa Corn Growers Association Records, MS 473; and Iowa Corn Promotion Board Records, MS 495. We also hold a number of collections from Iowa State professors who had interest in the scholarly study of corn: the papers of Perry G. Holden, RS 16/3/11, the first superintendent of Extension Services who pioneered the seed corn gospel trains; Harold D. Hughes, RS 9/9/52, who helped initiate the state corn yield test; Arthur Thomas Erwin, RS 9/16/16, who supported extension work relating to crop growth; and Joe L. (Joseph Lee) Robinson, RS 9/9/57, who was involved in the hybrid corn movement in Iowa and an employee of ISU for forty years.