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 […]
State Historical Society of Iowa
Posted inCommunity/News
Petition to reverse closure of Iowa City archives rejected as state defends against lawsuit, lawmakers
As 2025 was drawing to close, the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) finally issued its response to a petition submitted at the end of October that asked the department to reverse its decision to close the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) research center in Iowa City. As expected, DAS rejected the request in […]
Posted inCommunity/News
For the sake of science, NASA gave away hundreds of moon rocks. Iowa keeps its allotment under lock and key.
Is this heaven? No, but there are pieces of the heavens in Iowa — and 135 countries, all U.S. states and the United Nations. Specifically, four rice-grain-sized pieces of moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission, the first to land on the Moon. In total, the mission returned to Earth with 47.5 pounds of lunar […]
Posted inStatewide
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 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret photographed presidents, everyday Iowans and her own son’s birth. But her legacy goes well beyond the lens
In 1951, Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret was fired from her job as a photojournalist at the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The reason: she was pregnant. She responded by photographing the birth to her son — an audacious proposition at the time. The photos — mostly shots of the doctors, nurses and newborn Artie from her POV on […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Collections are fragile,’ but conservationists say they’re being ignored as the State Historical Society moves out of Iowa City using prison labor
Behind the Centennial Building in downtown Iowa City on Monday morning, workers began to load a truck with parts of the collections housed in the research facility and archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI), the building’s occupant since 1956. SHSI announced on June 17 that it would close the Iowa City facility, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Rally planned in Iowa City to protest closure of State Historical Society research center by Reynolds administration
As the Trump administration continues its attempts to erase and rewrite history — on Tuesday, President Trump said he had “instructed my attorneys to go through the [Smithsonian] Museums” to ensure the Smithsonian is focused on “Success” and “Brightness” instead of “how bad Slavery was” — Iowans will rally on Saturday to demand the state protect […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: The decision to close SHSI Iowa City should alarm anyone interested in Iowa and Midwest history
Some 40 years ago, my mother donated a 1915 landscape plan to the State Historical Society of Iowa’s library in Iowa City. The plan, a rare surviving hand-painted sketch by landscape architect Joseph Krieger for Waterloo architect Howard Burr (1885-1964), was part of their design of what later became my family’s home in rural Charles […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Rediscovering the women who brought classical music and literature to small town Iowa
A century ago, the small towns of Iowa may have seemed to be a world away from the cultural centers of America, but throughout the state, groups of women formed philharmonic societies to help bring culture to their hometowns. Marian Wilson Kimber, a professor for the University of Iowa School of Music, is dedicated to […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City’s first Archives Crawl will highlight history and artifacts
Hosted by the Obermann Center, Saturday’s crawl will draw the eye to hidden gems and tease the center’s upcoming symposium Against Amnesia: Archives, Evidence and Social Justice, starting March 1.
Posted inCommunity/News
Church holds a century of Iowa City history, its future is part of a proposed development
The Unitarian Universalist Society Church on the corner of Iowa Avenue and Gilbert Street is turning 109 years old this year. The building, dedicated in 1908, housed the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City up until they voted in February 2015 to move to new location in Coralville. Today the brick building, made to look […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Cultural affairs officials in Iowa struggle to find a balance between access and preservation
Tallgrass Historians L.C. is a small, Iowa City-based business specializing in the research of historical information. The company is often called on by state…
