As last year came to an end, so did public access to the Centennial Building. The building, home to the Iowa City research facility of the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) since 1956, provided researchers, students and anyone curious about Iowa history with access to 34,700 cubic feet of archival materials, including thousands of […]
Save Iowa History
Iowa Senate Republicans advance bill to eliminate possibility of reopening Iowa City State Historical Society research center
A Senate subcommittee advanced a measure Tuesday to remove the state requirement to maintain a State Historical Society of Iowa research center in Iowa City — a point of litigation as the state has already moved to close the facility. SSB 3033 strikes the state requirement for the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to maintain […]
Historians, unions and legislators fight against the clock to save the Centennial Building and its archive
The sign on the door of the State Historical Society of Iowa’s Centennial Building, where the society’s Iowa City research facility has been located since 1956, let visitors on Wednesday know there were only a few days left to access its remarkable archival collections or even the building itself. The Centennial Building has been open […]




