The University of Iowa Libraries has compiled the Campus Maps Digital Collection, documenting nearly 150 years of UI campus building development.

This digital collection, at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/campusmaps, documents the growth of the UI, with 97 items dated from 1892 to 2004. The collection — drawn from University Archives — includes maps from course catalogs, a 1893 survey map of what is now the Pentacrest, and a 1946 (post-World War II) guide featuring temporary buildings. The collection also includes bird’s-eye drawings of campus development plans that were never carried out.

“All researchers of university history will benefit from this new online collection,” said David McCartney, university archivist. “It offers something of interest to alumni, genealogists, historians with an interest in urban development, and even current students who want to examine what campus life must have been like in another era.”

“This is a valuable resource for the university community, showing changes to the campus that are not visible today,” says Mark Anderson, digital initiatives librarian. “It nicely complements other digital collections in the Iowa Digital Library such as the Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes (http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ictcs) and Irving Weber’s Iowa City (http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/weber).”

Several of the items in this digital collection will also be on display in a March exhibit at the Main Library north exhibit hall called “Building the University.”

The Iowa Digital Library (http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu) contains nearly 100,000 digital objects — photographs, maps, sound recordings and documents — from libraries and archives at the University of Iowa and their partnering institutions.