Tag: Iowa State University

Posted on

ISU’s First Female Graduate in Mechanical Engineering: Florence Kimball

Graduation is a special time at Iowa State.  It is a time to celebrate our recent graduates’ accomplishments and remember those of our alumni.  Today, we honor the first female mechanical engineering graduate at Iowa State, Florence Kimball Stoufer. 

Florence Lottie Kimball was born in 1885 to Jessie Atkinson Kimball (1860-1929) and Charles Kimball (1859-1946) in Anamosa, Iowa. In 1904, following her junior year of high school, Florence pursued a mechanical engineering degree at Iowa State, where she was active on campus in various student organizations. She played both left and right guard on the women’s varsity hockey team, was a member of the Cliolian Literary Society, a class officer, a reporter and society editor for the Iowa State Student (now the Iowa State Daily), and a member of the Bomb Board as a junior. She was also a member of S.S., which became the Sigma Sigma chapter of the Kappa Delta sorority, serving as Kappa Delta’s first president. In June of 1908, Florence became the first woman to graduate from Iowa State College with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree.

Florence Kimball Stoufer pictured in her yearbook which includes her notes about classmates for class reunions. Draped on the corner of the yearbook is a 1908 class armband used during the 1908 class reunion in 1953. Kimball and Stoufer family papers RS 21/7/329, unprocessed. Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.

In 1911, Florence married Donald B. “D.B.” Stoufer, a fellow mechanical engineering graduate from Iowa State.  He went on to work in the Kimball family business, Kimball Elevator Co., while Florence managed the business’s real estate holdings.  The couple maintained ties with Iowa State through the attendance of their three children, Richard, William (ME ’38), and Lucy Beall (HEC ’46), and multiple grandchildren.  They also were involved with the Omaha-Council Bluffs chapter of the ISU Alumni Association.  In 1977, Florence passed away at the age of 91.  Two years later, her family honored her through the Florence Kimball Stoufer Recognition Award, which was granted to women in mechanical engineering to honor their achievements at Iowa State between 1978 and 2001.

  • Image of D.B. Stoufer (left), daughter Lucy Beall Stoufer (middle), and Florence Kimball Stoufer (right) visiting Iowa State College in the Fall of 1942. Kimball and Stoufer family papers RS 21/7/329, unprocessed. Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.
  • Program for the Florence Kimball Stoufer Recognition Award, undated. Iowa State University. Alumni and Former Student Subject Files RS 21/7/1. Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.

Through the generosity of her family, Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) recently acquired her records, along with those of her family members.  Portions of Florence’s educational journey are documented in her papers through her notes and marginalia in textbooks, while her campus life is visible through things like programs to campus plays. However, most prevalent throughout the collection are materials documenting the Stoufers’ lives as alumni through correspondence with classmates, organizing class reunions, and their active participation in the Omaha-Council Bluffs chapter of the ISU Alumni Association.

[Photo of Botany Notebook]

Pages from Florence Kimball’s notany notebook, undated. Kimball and Stoufer family papers RS 21/7/329, unprocessed. Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.

Letter from William J. Scherle to Florence Stoufer, June 15, 1973. Kimball and Stoufer family papers RS 21/7/329, unprocessed. Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.

Stay tuned for more stories about the Kimball and Stoufer families, with generations of Iowa Staters spanning 1886 through 2022! 

Posted on

New State Fair Exhibit

Iowa State University has a long, historical relationship with the Iowa State Fair. Iowa State has presented exhibits at the fair for different colleges, supported 4H in their endeavors, and had Extension present to help teach the community about new technology like electricity (see photo below).

University Photos, RS 16/1/E, Box 1328, Folder 6.
 1937

To celebrate this long relationship, we have a new exhibit on the 1st floor of Parks Library. The exhibit features photos of the “Butter Cow lady”, Norma Lyon, an alumna of Iowa State, 4H artifacts, general fair artifacts, and some of the earliest pictures we have from the State Fair in 1915.

Feel free to stop by whenever the library is open!

Gallery Images:

Posted on

The Dark Plate of Dombey and Son

Dickens sitting in a rocking chair with a phantasmagoria of images unspooling out of his head, all his characters he created
Buss, Robert William; Dickens’s Dream; Charles Dickens Museum, London; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/dickenss-dream-191221

Illustrations! When did books lose their way and stop putting them in?

At one point in Victorian literature, they were MORE IMPORTANT than the story! Yes, stop rolling your eyes. You see, at first Dickens’ phenomenon-starting The Pickwick Papers, was intended as window dressing for illustrator Robert Seymour’s drawings. However, floored by Dickens’ incredible imagination and energy, Seymour found the story dominated the drawings. Unable to keep pace and already in a bad mental state, Seymour committed suicide after several chapters had been published.

Still, illustrations remained key to Dickens’ stories for the rest of his career. Soon afterward, “Boz” (Dickens’ pen name) hired Hablot K. Browne (“Phiz”), who illustrated his books for the next 24 years. The popular images of many of Dickens’ characters: Scrooge, Uriah Heep, Wackford Squeers, and more come from Phiz’s faithful drawings.

And what great art! Let’s look at a special one.

Enter Dombey and Son, Dickens’ career hinge-point novel.

“On the Dark Road” by Phiz, relating a night scene of the novel uniquely featured a pre-tinted plate out of which the scene was drawn, one of the earliest examples of this method.

Dark grayscale drawing of a carriage with horses feeling down a dark road
“On the Dark Road” by Phiz

Illustrations!

When you look at one so dark and exhilarating, don’t you want them back?

Come see “the Dark Plate” for yourself up in Special Collections and University Archives!

Posted on

Lovely Sights in Kyoto

Print of Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto with traditionally clad Japanese women going under the red arches and climbing steps.
Fushimi Inari Taisha, T. Kamei

For a great reason, Kyoto is the dream of many: a city so far away from our understanding of normal that its temples, rock gardens, forests, and districts float like a dream on our eyes.

Founded officially in 794, Kyoto eventually served as Japan’s imperial capital for over 1,000 years until post Meiji restoration, when the capital moved to Tokyo. However, Kyoto’s grand cultural monuments and atmosphere remain astounding. Here in Ames, Iowa, how can we voyage to so great a place?

Easily. In Special Collections, there is a gorgeous and simple print book Ten Lovely Sights in Kyoto, which gently captures Kyoto’s beauty. At the top is Fushimi Inari Taisha, one of the most popular shrines in Kyoto, famous for its thousands of torii gates spanning a whole mountainside.

Autumn image of Tofukuji, with yellow, orange, and red trees surrounding the wooden temple.
Tofukuji, T. Kamei

Another famous sight is Tofukuji Temple, renowned especially for its fall foliage. Kyoto’s autumn colors are genuinely dazzling, ruby splashes across the mountainsides. Built originally in 1236, crowds gather on Tofukuji’s Tsutenkyo Bridge to look upon a red, orange, and yellow sea of maple leaves.

Come up to Special Collections and University Archives to see the other prints. It’ll be the best part of your day!