Learning with Primary Sources

Since many students are engaged in virtual learning, I am starting a new blog series that shares digitized primary sources that can be incorporated into class lessons.  I am including digitized material from our collections, but am using collections and lessons from Library of Congress and Digital Public Library of America also.

What are primary sources

Primary sources are first hand accounts of events. They come in a variety of formats including, but not limited to, photographs, meeting minutes, correspondence, newspaper articles, diaries, social media posts, autobiographies, oral histories, and news clips. They do not have to be historic events —documenting one’s every day life provides evidence of how we live now to future generations. Think of how much life has changed from when you were a kid to now, much less the lives of older generations.

Why should primary sources be included in the curriculum?

Using primary source materials

• improves critical thinking and research skills,
• engages students by making historical events more personal which helps them view history as a sequence of human events instead of distant historical events, and
• encourages students to use evidence for their research.

Bomb (Iowa State University’s Yearbook)

The Bomb was Iowa State’s yearbook from 1893–1994 and the digital collection includes the full run of yearbooks.

Activities

• Take 10 minutes flipping through a yearbook, any year (though you can also assign a year if that fits in with other lessons). Pick out another yearbook, at least 2 decades apart from first yearbook and spend 10 minutes browsing.
  • What did the yearbooks have in common? What was different? Give 3 possibilities that explain the differences.
  • What do the yearbooks tell you about student life at Iowa State? What information about student life is missing that you would be interested in knowing about?

Rosa Parks: A Primary Source Gallery

This is from the Library of Congress and is appropriate for students of all ages.This gallery highlights pieces from the Rosa Parks Papers and includes teaching ideas, a primary source analysis tool, and access to additional teaching guides for analyzing primary source materials.

Lyrical Legacy: 400 Years of American Song and Poetry

This is from the Library Congress and includes songs and poems represented by digitized primary source documents from the Library of Congress’ collection, along with historical context for the songs and poems. This site includes analysis tools and activity ideas.

The United Farm Workers and the Delano Grape Strike

This set of primary sources comes from the Digital Public Library of America. It contains digitized material from various institutions and includes additional online resources and a teaching guide.

My selections for today’s primary source sets and collections is random because I want to give you all an idea of the various subjects and types of materials that are available. Stay tuned for my next installment in April!

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Resources

Iowa State University Library Digital Collections

Library of Congress: Teachers

Digital Public Library: Primary Source Sets

 

Study Breaks from 1985

Almost no one wants to spend their whole day studying. As important as it is to stay on top of assignments and readings, there’s only so long the average student can study before some kind of study break is needed. The authors of the 1985 Bomb likely would have agreed with the need for occasional study breaks, as they gifted us with this two-page spread on the types of study breaks preferred by students at the time.

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  Image from the 1985 Bomb pg. 18

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  Image from the 1985 Bomb pg. 18

According to the Bomb, many students looked to watching T.V. shows such as All My Children and General Hospital, to relax after a long study session. Others preferred to take a quick nap to rest their minds and bodies.

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  Image from the 1985 Bomb pg 19

However, by far the most popular types of study breaks at the time were ones centered around food. The most iconic of these food centered breaks being what the authors refer to as “the famous “Quick Trip Run.””

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  Image from the 1985 Bomb pg. 19

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  Image from the 1985 Bomb pg. 19

All of these certainly sound more fun than studying! Which, if any, would you choose to relax and refresh yourself? If none of these sound quite right, what works for you?

#FunFriday – 1974 Novelty Sports

Let’s start this #FunFriday with a look at the past! On March 18^th, 1974, over 500 students participated in the novelty intramurals of Residence Hall Week. The RHW novelty intramurals were set up in the Linden-Oak-Elm courtyard on a Sunday. Of all the events held that day, I’d be willing to bet the messiest was the mud slide, shown below, which set a new record for longest mud slide.

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Other activities included an egg toss, a molasses pour, frisbee toss, pogo stick race, and pyramid building. From these pictures it looks like the next day must have been a laundry day for many participants!

On Wednesday, the RHW Novelty Intramurals moved inside. These indoor events were considerably less messy, but no less fun. Students participated in activities such as a clothes race, bat race, sleeping bag race, and tug of war. Also included in this week was an all-university ping-pong championship between members of residence associations.

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Overall, this week sounds like it was a lot of fun!

If you’d like to read about more Iowa State events from the past, check out our digital collection of yearbooks from 1894-1994.

“Alice Doesn’t Day” by Research Assistant Amanda Larsen

The following post was written by Amanda Larsen, who is working at SCUA this year as an Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA). Her project revolves around historical feminist activism on the ISU campus. Regarding today’s article, note that the Monday after next, exactly two weeks from today, will mark 43 years since the “Alice Doesn’t Day” strike.

-Rachael Acheson
Assistant University Archivist

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Alice Doesn’t Day

October 29^th, 1975 was one of the first days to show the nation how much women contribute to society. The National Organization for Women (NOW) created a national strike day for women in order to emphasize how important women are for society. They called it “Alice Doesn’t Day,” a reference to the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.  NOW called for every woman to refrain from work or spending any money. The alternative for women who could not skip work was to wear an armband and discuss its purpose.

On campus, the Government of the Student Body (GSB) was asked to support the strike by on campus women’s organization. The bill to support Alice Doesn’t Day was sponsored by Roxanne Ryan, a student in sciences and humanities.

Roxanne Ryan with members of her residence hall. Image from the Bomb 1975, pg. 308.

Various groups scheduled programs supporting Alice Doesn’t Day on the Iowa State campus according to news articles. For those who wished to participate in the event, the YWCA had seminars on women’s health, practical consumerism, pampering ourselves, and women and the law. If the participants had young children, there were male-run daycare and babysitting services provided. GSB passed the bill supporting Alice Doesn’t Day, to the dismay of some. In the community, Ames Mayor William Pelz showed support for Alice Doesn’t Day by signing an official proclamation naming October 29^th as “Alice Doesn’t Day.”

Not everyone supported Alice Doesn’t Day. The Iowa State Daily’s “Point of View” section notes that some believed calling for women not to go to work was not the best tactic for showing women’s roles in society. While it might have shown how much women contribute, it could also have shown unprofessionalism and little regard for their work. Others felt that women should double their efforts on the 29^th with the same goal of showing how much they can contribute to society. A group opposed to Alice Doesn’t Day vowed to wear pink dresses and call for the firing of any woman protesting. In terms of students, most told the Daily that the reason they could not participate in the strike was that they had classes and “school is more important than my ethical views.” Since they could not miss classes, many of the women interviewed said they would refrain from spending money that day.

Cartoon on ISU student activism (or lack thereof). The Bomb 1975, pg. 504.

Rosl Gowdey, one of the publicity workers for the project, stated that the goal of the day was to “focus on what happens to the women who participate, than on the number of participants. If only one or two women get something out of it, then that’s great, and we’ve accomplished our purpose.” While most think that the day was a failure, others viewed the event as successful because of the awareness: “In terms of awareness and talking about women’s contributions, it was successful,” said by Susan Newcomer, the president of the Ames chapter of the National Organization for Women.

If you or anyone you know has any information about women activist from 1960-1979 here at Iowa State, please feel free to contact Special Collections to discuss preserving the material.

Image from page 19 of the Ames Daily Tribune, October 25th, 1975.

 

Tornado Country

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.

#TBT Icy Walk to Class

Page 37 from The Bomb, 1965

Winter in Iowa can prove challenging!  Be careful out there and remember that each day that goes by gets us one day closer to spring.

Staying in to avoid the cold and ice? Check out the digital collection of the Bomb, or better yet, help us transcribe it!

A Brief History of International Students at ISU

The mission of Iowa State University is to “Create, share, and apply knowledge to make Iowa and the world a better place.” In support of this mission, the University offers numerous opportunities for students and faculty to explore and share with the world, but it is hardly a one-way street. People come to Iowa State from all parts of the world to share their experiences and to gain a quality education. It really is remarkable how a small agricultural college established in the 1850s in the middle of Iowa has, over the course of over 150 years, built such a strong international reputation. This reputation has been drawing international students to Iowa State for well over 100 years. Unfortunately, documenting international students and their campus experiences is not an easy task.

The 1906 Bomb was one of the first to recognize international students at Iowa State. (The Bomb, LD2548 Io9b)

There are very few sources available to a researcher looking for information on early students at Iowa State, regardless of their country of origin. The first students arrived on campus in 1868, but it would be another 25 years before a yearbook (The Bomb) was published. Student directories were not available either, the earliest available being from 1901. For years prior to that, the college biennial reports and the course catalogs are the best sources for information on individual students. The biennial reports include lists of students for the very earliest years and then, by the 1880s, this information was shifted to the course catalogs. It is helpful that the listings often include the names of the students’ hometowns.

Based on these sources, the earliest evidence of an international student enrolling at Iowa State was in 1882 when F. Nouman of Piramaribo, South America, (this is how the hometown was listed) was enrolled for one year as a “special student,” likely meaning that he was not enrolled in the standard curriculum. In 1898 and 1899 there were several Canadian students who received degrees, though it is curious why a handful of them all appeared on campus at the same time with several of them receiving veterinary degrees. In 1902, two young men from Leon, Mexico, enrolled in the agriculture program, but neither appears to have finished their degrees.

This page from the 1901 student directory, the earliest one available, gives an idea of the type of information that can be gathered from these resources–provided the abbreviations can be deciphered! (Students’ Directory, LD2538 I58x)

The first international students outside of North America to receive degrees from Iowa State both earned them in 1907. Delfin Sanchez de Bustamante from Argentina received an advanced degree in agronomy and Alfred E. Parr of England graduated with an advanced degree in animal husbandry. We know nothing of what happened to Bustamante following his graduation, but from correspondence in an alumni file we know that after graduating from Iowa State, Parr went on to become the Director of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in British India.

That same year, Iowa State students began organizing a campus chapter of the Cosmopolitan Club. Officially established on campus in 1908, the purpose of the club, as stated in its constitution, was to encourage friendship, respect, and understanding among men and women of all nationalities. The Cosmopolitan Club attracted students from all backgrounds, but became a home for international students especially.

Please stop by Special Collections and University Archives to view these materials for yourself. Who knows, maybe you will find references to early international students that I missed! If you have materials you would like to donate to the Special Collections and University Archives to help us continue to tell the story of student life on the Iowa State University campus, please contact us. We would be happy to hear from you!

#TBT Engineer’s Campfire

Tomorrow is the first day of fall, so let’s look back at an Iowa State fall tradition of days gone by.

Page from the 1927 Bomb

The text on the page reads “One of the most picturesque occasions of the Fall Quarter is the Engineer’s Campfire held in a natural theatre in North Woods.  During the afternoon a regular “Side-show” provides entertainment, while at night two big fires light up a stage for student vaudeville stunts.  The Engineers are knighted by St. Patrick by the light of the two big “torches.”  Norman Brown was St. Patrick this fall, and Margaret Erickson was “Engineer’s Lady.”

The Engineer’s Campfire was suspended in 1929 due to falling revenue and the unpredictability of the fall weather in Iowa.

As the weather gets colder (or at least, will eventually!), take time to learn about other ISU traditions that have been left in the past. After you do that, the entire run of the Bomb has been digitized, and all are encouraged to contribute to helping transcribe the pages in order to make the text search more accurate.