Collection Details
The University Archives is home to collections that document the history of Iowa State University and the people that are part of the Iowa State community. This history is recorded in a variety of ways and on a number of formats including paper, photographs, publications, moving images, artifacts, and digital files.
The early administrative history of Iowa State University is recorded in only a handful of materials located in the archives. Items such as the original ledgers of minutes and the biennial reports of the Board of Trustees are invaluable archival resources for information on the early college. For later years, the University Archives houses the papers of campus administrators, such as the those of President W. Robert Parks, Dean Robert E. Buchanan, or Dean Maurice D. Helser.
Faculty papers are collected to help document the activities of Iowa State’s educators and to support our department’s major collecting areas in the life sciences, engineering, and agriculture and rural life. Prominent collections include those of botanist Louis H. Pammel, computer pioneer John Vincent Atanasoff, Iowa historian Dorothy Schwieder, and agricultural engineer Jay B. Davidson.
The University Archives also documents Iowa State students and alums. Records of student organizations such as Student Government, the Fashion Show, VEISHEA, KURE, and student clubs, fraternities, and sororities are part of the archives. Similar to the collection of faculty papers, our department also collects alumni papers that support our major collecting areas. Some of these collections include the Raymond F. Baker papers, the Helen D. Gunderson papers, the Richard K. Seim papers, and the Lawrence Skromme agricultural machinery literature collection.
Record Groups
See how the University Archives collections are organized by provenance or creator.
Collections by Format
