Collecting Areas

The University Archives documents the history and people of Iowa State University through its collections. The collections contain multiple formats, including paper, photographs, publications, moving images, audio, artifacts, and digital files.

Archival collections in agriculture and rural life cover sixteen broad categories, including business, agribusiness, and marketing; cooperatives; engineering and technology; extension; the farm crisis of the 1980s; farmers and farming; farmers organizations and protest groups; government agencies and public officials; historians and social scientists; journalism and broadcasting; producer and distributor organizations; professional and scientific organizations; scientists and scientific research; soil, water, and wildlife conservation; town and rural life; and veterinary medicine and animal welfare.

Archival collections in engineering cover the major areas of engineering: agricultural, aerospace, biological, biosystems, chemical, civil, construction, electrical, environmental, industrial, mechanical, and nuclear engineering. The collections document the teaching and research in engineering since the early days of the university through departmental records and faculty papers, as well as individuals and associations not affiliated with the university.

Archival collections in the life sciences cover biology, botany, zoology, microbiology, physiology, biochemistry, and related subjects of conservation, environmental science, and veterinary medicine. The collections include papers of individuals active in the sciences and records of professional and scientific organizations.

The Archives of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) includes personal and professional papers of women in all areas of the sciences and engineering, except that of the medical sciences, as well as records of women’s organizations in these fields. The collections include both the papers of Iowa State alumni and faculty and women not affiliated with the university.