On June 11 University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections started their Summer Seminar Series! This online series features Special Collections & Archives staff talking about what we know best: our collections and our favorite topics featured in the archives. This series of 15-30 minute presentations are recorded, so if you can’t join us for our regularly scheduled time of 2pm CT on Wednesdays and Fridays through the end of July, catch us later on our Youtube channel!
For more information or for how you can partake, please email Liz Riordan at elizabeth-riordan@uiowa.edu
Schedule of Talks
June 11th–Special Collections in a Nutshell
Join Head of Special Collections, Margaret Gamm, to learn about what’s in Special Collections, how to discover our resources online, and what’s to come in our new Summer Seminar series.
June 12th– University Archives: Our Services and a Hawkeye History Sampler
The University Archives is UI’s institutional memory. Learn from University Archivist, David McCartney, about our holdings and online resources, as well as some Hawkeye history to share at your next (virtual) party.
June 17th–Shining the Limelight on Early Cinema and the Midwest Audience
In this presentation Outreach & Engagement Librarian Liz Riordan will show a few films from the Brinton Entertaining Company Collection, discussing their impact on cinema and a Midwest audience.
June 19th–Racial Injustice in Iowa and the Midwest
Learn from Assistant Curator of Iowa Women’s Archives, Janet Weaver, and IWA student worker, Erik Henderson, about the history of local civil rights movements from the perspective of Black and Latinx community leaders who fought for change between the 1940s and the present.
June 24th–Rediscovering Ruth Suckow: A Look Into Her Life and Hidden Materials
Processing Librarian Jenna Silver provides an introduction to Iowa Author Ruth Suckow, her works, her love for animals, and the “hidden” materials of her collection.
June 26th–Out in Iowa City: Lesbian Feminism in the University of Iowa’s Hometown
During the women’s liberation movement from the 1960s to the 1980s, lesbians in Iowa City became writers, printers, business owners, and activists. At this talk by Processing Librarian Anna Tunnicliff, you can learn how their incredible work changed the landscape of the University and the town.
July 8th–Who is Tigrina? Exloring Identity in Early SF Fandom
Olson Graduate Rich Dana will show that among the thousands of amazing documents in the Hevelin Science Fiction Collection there is a series of WWII-era letters from a remarkable woman with a mysterious name… Tigrina!
July 10th–Into the Vault: Iowa’s Privately Printed Peter Rabbit
Learn from Public Service Librarian Lindsay Moen the history of The University of Iowa’s privately printed Tale of Peter Rabbit, from Beatrix Potter’s concept, to the book’s arrival to the Iowa stacks.
July 15th–Processing Collections: A Look Inside the Archivist’s Process
Learn the steps and procedures that archivists must take to process materials, while also learning about the “fun” or “unique” items we have discovered while dealing with materials from Processing Librarian Jenna Silver!
July 17th–Cheap Copies:The Rise of the Amateur Printing, Fanzines and the “Mimeograph Revolution”
Olson Graduate Assistant Rich Dana will explain the use of “cheap copies” and the development of similar visual languages in SF fandom and the Avant-garde.
July 24th–No! Really?: Stories from the Stacks
Flying saucers, propeller beanies, rocket countdowns, Mary Shelley and the Holocaust…Peter Balestrieri has learned some great stories as Curator of Science Fiction and Popular Culture and he’d love to share them with you.
July 29th—One More Round
Join Outreach & Engagement Librarian as she looks into the fight for, and ultimate failed attempt, of Prohibition in Iowa.
July 31st–When Iowans Voted No: The 1916 Referendum on Women’s Suffrage
Although the Iowa General Assembly considered a women’s suffrage amendment in almost every session for over 40 years, the question wasn’t brought to the voters until 1916. The ensuing campaigns for and against women’s suffrage and the reasons for the referendum’s ultimate failure will be considered in this talk from Processing Librarian Anna Tunnicliff on women’s suffrage in Iowa.