Collection details
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.
Collection highlights
- University Records: The official records of the university, designated for permanent retention or with historical value, as determined by SCUA staff, document the creation, development, priorities, and activities of every ISU administrative unit, academic school, department, and research center/institute. Such collections include the original ledgers of minutes and the biennial reports of the Board of Trustees, President W. Robert Parks papers, Dean Robert E. Buchanan papers, and Dean Maurice D. Helser papers.
- Faculty and Staff Collections: Faculty papers help document the activities of Iowa State’s educators and 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.
- Iowa State Affiliated Organizations: Faculty and staff organizations, alumni groups, and Iowa State support organizations records document the creation, development, priorities, and activities of these organizations. Such collections include the American Association of University Professors, Iowa State University Chapter records, Women's Club records, Alumni Association records, Foundation records, and Stanton Memorial Carillon Foundation records.
- Student Organization and Activism Collections: The University Archives also endeavors to preserve a representative collection of the student experience at Iowa State through collecting the physical and digital records that document the creation, development, priorities, and activities of all student organizations and materials documenting involvement in activism by Iowa State students. Such collections include the records of the Government of the Student Body, the Black Student Alliance, VEISHEA, Homecoming, student publications such as Ethos and the Iowa State Daily, Iowa State chapters of organizations like the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, Gamma Phi Beta sorority, Society of Women Engineers, and Phi Kappa Phi.
- Alumni Collections: Our alumni collections document individual alum's student experience with an emphasis on unique materials created and collected during their time at Iowa State or their engagement with Iowa State afterwards. These collections can also document alumni whose collection supports SCUA's other collecting areas. Such 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.
Access
Search all SCUA's archival collections in CARDinal.
Search for publications produced by Iowa State and its students or related to its history using Quick Search.
Selected materials from SCUA's collections are available online in our Digital Collections.
Selected audiovisual materials have been digitized and are available freely online via YouTube and Aviary
Learn about how you can create or request reproductions of materials in SCUA's collections for use in various ways.
Search tips
The University Archives are organized into 32 record groups (PDF) by provenance or creator.