Collection Connection – News & Announcements

Sep 13 2021

The Sam Hamod Saga, Part One: Making Introductions

Posted on September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by graduate student Bailey Adolph, who is processing the Sam Hamod Papers.

“Thus, we gain richness from our heritage—but we should not be limited as writers by our ethnicity.”

—Sam Hamod, “Ethos and Ethnos: The Ethnic Writer in the USA”

At the beginning of the summer, the University of Iowa Special Collections & Archives acquired the papers of Sam Hamod, a revered Arab American poet and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Hamod is known for his unique perspective that comes through in his poetry and gives the reader insight into the Arab American experience.

The papers came in eight boxes, and once staff started to unpack and organize them into sections, Hamod’s rich story began to be revealed. Though the collection mostly consists of poetry and prose, several documents shed light on all parts of his life: his childhood, his college days, his time as a professor, and his experiences in the Arab American community. There is much more to be uncovered, but the following is intended to serve as a foundation for further discussion of Sam Hamod as a poet and member of the community.

Sam Hamod was born in a boarding house hotel, owned by his parents, in Gary, Indiana in 1936. His father immigrated to the US from Syria sometime between 1914 and 1920, and his mother was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa to parents who immigrated from Syria to the US around 1905. He states that “my earliest recollections are of my father, mother and maternal grandfather, plus a lot of guys who roomed at the hotel and ate with us— gandy dancers, railroad firemen and engineers, open hearth workers— everything— and from every nationality in the world.” Men would come to stay at their boarding house hotel while they worked in the steel mills and railroads around Gary and Chicago which allowed him to hear different languages and dialects throughout his childhood. In one of his writings titled Growing Up In Iowa: Days of Arabs, Apple Cider and Dreams, he describes an incident in which he did not know how to fix something on a car, but his cousin did, which embarrassed him. However, he goes on to state:

“I always felt bad, but later I rationalized, or maybe it was the truth, that my cousin was raised in that business and liked it and therefore knew more about cars– and he did know a lot more than I did. As for me, I felt I knew more about people than cars, partly because I’d been raised my first four years in a boarding house hotel, and because I enjoyed talking with people more than fixing cars.”

His upbringing in the boarding house, and later in his father’s tavern, allowed him to be around people all the time, setting the foundation for his writing as an adult.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hamod spent many summers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, working for the family business and going to the Islamic Mosque to learn Arabic and about his parents’ religion. He went on to pursue his education by getting his bachelor’s degree in communications and business in 1957. Though he initially started law school, Hamod left and returned to Gary, Indiana to own and run the Broadway Lounge from 1958 to 1959. However, after two years, he gave the bar to his father and pursued a master’s degree from Northwestern University. When describing his experience and the Broadway Lounge itself, Hamod states that it was, “a roughhouse type of place, but big and fast, and I had B.B. King and Muddy Waters play on weekends. Even old Redd Foxx told his dirty jokes there. But it got to be too much hassle, so I went back and earned an MA then began teaching at universities. During this time I also did some traveling in and over the world, got married, and had two children (David and Laura).”

Hamod returned to Iowa when he started at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, graduating from the program in 1973. He has said that his poetry did not really come alive until he started the program and met certain individuals.

“Anselm Hollo, Jack Marshall and some other friends believed in me, and after some crucial things happened in my life, some good poems came out on paper. Also meeting David Kherdian, and hearing him talk through his big, black, bushy mustache— the meeting of the Arab poet with the American poet— once again proved to me that my blood was an important source for my poetry.”

Since the 1960s, he published several books of poetry and appeared in dozens of anthologies. Additionally, he was nominated for two Nobel Prizes, once in Literature and once in Poetry, and his book, Dying With the Wrong Name, won the Ethnice Heritage Award in 1980 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also taught at several universities including Howard University, the University of Michigan, Rider University, and Princeton University, where he would teach creative writing as well as lectures about the Middle East and Islam.

Read more about Dr. Hamode Sam Hamod in his obituary from the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.

Works by Sam Hamod:

The Holding Action (1969)

The Famous Boating Party (1970)

After the Funeral of Assam Hamady (1971)

Surviving in America (1971)

Moving: New and Selected Poems, 1968-79 (1979)

Dying With the Wrong Name (1980)

Just Love Poems For You (2013)

Aug 13 2021

Founding of the Asian American Coalition

Posted on August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by Asian Alumni and Student Oral History Project Intern Jin Chang

This a multi-part series reconstructing the history of the Asian American Coalition, a pan-ethnic Asian American student group from 1998-2017. This first entry will trace out both the historical context preceding the founding of the organization as well as the initial meeting which would jumpstart the Asian American Coalition.

The University of Iowa has a long history of student organizations that serve Asian students, but prior to 1998, many of these organizations were based on a singular ethnicity or nationality, such as the Vietnamese Student Association, Taiwanese Student Association, and PERMIDAS, an Indonesian student organization. There were also student organizations that served facets of the Asian American community at the intersection of other identities and professional affiliations including the Asian American Women’s Group and the Asian American Law Student Association (now called the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association). Together, these organizations served specific communities in the wider umbrella term of Asian American.

While student led organizations provided informal support systems for Asian identifying students, institutional support for Asian Americans at the University of Iowa was severely lacking in the late 1990s. During this time, the University of Iowa hired the first Asian man in the University Counseling Center, Dr. Dau-shen Ju, who had received a counseling psychology PhD from the University of Iowa. One of his first assigned tasks was to help fill the gap of resources for Asian American students on campus. He decided to create a presentation that highlighted the lack of resources on campus titled “Asian Americans: Am I Invisible?” which drew a mix of roughly a dozen undergraduate and graduate students together ranging from MFA students in the Writers’ Workshop, PhD students in English and Communication Studies, and law school students.

Listen to Dr. Dau-shen Ju recount the lack of resources for Asian American students on campus in the fall of 1998:

Instead of Dr. Ju providing a formal presentation to this diverse group of students, they all sat in a circle together and began talking about their own Asian American experiences reflective of their induvial lives. This helped students recognize their shared experiences as Asian Americans on campus and in Iowa. The conversation in the group highlighted issues shared within the Asian American community including the invisibility that comes with living in a white/black racial binary and the lack of resources for Asian Americans at the University.

Here law student Ian Hirokawa describes what happened in that first meeting “Asian Americans: Am I Invisible” on September 21st 1998:

The students who initially attended Dr. Ju’s presentation would become the original leaders of the Asian American Coalition. This early meeting included Evelyn Ho, a Chinese American PhD student born in California who felt her Asian identity become uniquely racialized in Iowa in ways that never happened in California or Seattle where she went to college; Anthony Pham, a Vietnamese American undergraduate student raised in Iowa who felt he did not quite belong in the Vietnamese Student Association; Xuefan Sun a first generation immigrant from China who arrived to America at the age of fourteen who felt uniquely different from American Born Chinese (ABC’s) and the international students from China.

Hear Dr. Evelyn Ho share her memories of moving to Iowa and the racialization she experienced:

After the initial meeting, one graduate student in attendance, Ray Mescallado, suggested that the group meet again as there were many more conversations to be had. While the original cohort of members could not pinpoint the exact moment when they transitioned this informal discussion group into the Asian American Coalition as a student organization, this initial meeting was certainly the beginning of what would become a pan-ethnic umbrella organization for all Asian Americans at the University of Iowa.

The next blog will look at the early years of the Asian American Coalition.

Jul 26 2021

An Artist’s Perspective: Travel Diary of Stuart Travis

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by our Workplace Learning Connection summer intern Cassady Jackson

Stuart Travis (1868-1942) was an American artist who was accepted into art school in France during the latter half of the 19th century. He was just nineteen years old when he made the journey alone from New York to Europe. In his travel diary, housed in Special Collections & Archives, he tells the story of his travels to France, and all of the things he saw and thought while he was there, or at least the things that he remembered to write down.

Ink on paper drawing, men in ship’s smoking cabinet

He starts the diary during his voyage to London, England, aboard the USS Italy. Confined to the ship, he gives hour by hour updates as to what is happening aboard the ship and what the weather is like outside. He complains of the smell in the smoking room at night and counts down the hours until he falls seasick. He also illustrates many of his experiences. A personal favorite is the image he drew of himself standing near the door of the smoking room. The image captures the dimly lit cabin, and the way that his coat is blowing in the wind gives it a sort of eerie feeling.

Once he arrives in what he refers to as ‘Queens’-land, alternatively known as London, he continues to tell the stories of what is happening around him. According to Travis, he knew the ship had reached London because those above deck had begun to ring the bells. No longer confined to the ship, the frequency of his stories begin to decrease to only one entry a day. While he was in London he stayed with an old woman, someone he states as being a comfort to him, and he writes long entries about what he sees on the street and what his room is like in London.

Once he moves on to France, his entries become even shorter and further in between, but the stories become more interesting. His excitement about attending the academy is very apparent throughout his early entries in France. He loves the art he is doing, although he does often tell about his frustrations he has with each of his creations. He also despises drawing his own portrait. More specifically, he hates having to use a looking glass because it is, “impossible to paint through a looking glass,” and he puts off his portrait for other work.

Ink on paper drawing of one-man wrestling match

Between his art-related complaints, he describes what a typical day would look like for a young man and his friends, in and out of school. He tells how they critique each other’s art before class starts, and their professors listen in to see what they are thinking. They each had a favorite figure model, male or female, and were always excited when they got to work with them. He is surrounded by many personalities and talks openly of all of them. He observes that some of the models are very aloof and the professors are very snarky, that he hates tourists, and he loves mimes. One of the mimes, a classmate of his, is able to wrestle himself, performing while others gather around him and watch. Travis was so impressed that he illustrated the experience.

Despite the excitement of his travels, Travis’s entries reveal some hints of homesickness. Many of the entries, especially those in the beginning and end, mention the number of letters he has written home. He says he has written dozens of letters to those back in America, but has yet to have one be returned. He hopes that if he continues to write to his family, one day one of the letters will be answered, but he never mentions whether or not anyone wrote back to him. The longer he stays in Europe, the less he writes in his diary as well. There are many empty sections of the journal, some that are dated, and some that are not. He also leaves room in some entries for an illustration of the day, but never gets around to filling them in. There are also days that he has written in the middle of the page, leaving room for the days before and after that he never got around to completing. These are actions maybe all of us have been guilty of in our own journaling.

The end of his diary leaves many questions as to what happened next in his life, even the end of the trip is not included. The very last entry is just a pencil drawing of a bird in a cage, hanging in his suite on the voyage home. This drawing feels as unfinished as Travis’ diary, as the majority of the images he included before it are in ink. This leaves one to wonder what could have happened to Travis after this diary project was abandoned.

Pencil on paper drawing, birdcage in ship’s cabin

Fear not, some online searching reveals that Travis lived a long and successful life after this diary. He lived to be 74 years old, illustrated magazine covers for Vogue, and was a partner at a few museums. If you wish to walk in the shoes of a young artist in the last half of the 19th century, Stuart Travis’s diary is a compelling place to start.

Jul 23 2021

Spirit Duplicators: Early 20th Century Copier Art, Fanzines, and the Mimeograph Revolution

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following was written by Olson Graduate Assistant Rich Dana, and curator of the Spirit Duplicators exhibit in Special Collections & Archives reading room

During my three and a half years at Special Collections, I have worked with an amazing range of materials, but my major projects have focused on first, the James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection of Science Fiction, and more recently The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. As I became more familiar with these and other collections of documents from the realms of both science fiction fandom and the 20th Century Avant-Garde, I began to notice remarkable similarities in the publications of both cultural movements.

I began thinking about a potential exhibit of these zines and chapbooks, and when I sheepishly mentioned this notion to Marvin Sackner in a telephone conversation, he became very excited. “If you could prove a direct connection between fanzines and visual poetry, you would really have something!” He told me that he considered the final pages of Alfred Bester’s 1956 science fiction classic The Stars My Destination to be one of his first experiences with visual poetry.

I set about the task of combing the Sackner Archive and Hevelin Collection for connections. My search expanded to the other areas of the department such as rare books, ATCA Periodicals and Zines Collection, Fluxus West Collection, M. Horvat Science Fiction Fanzines Collection, and many more. A story began to emerge.

Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl, published by City Lights Books in 1956, brought “Beat Poetry” to the attention of the world and helped to spark a new literary movement. But before Lawrence Ferlinghetti published the now-famous Pocket Poets book, there was another edition of Howl printed: a 25 copy run off on a “ditto” machine by Marthe Rexroth in an office at San Francisco State College.

Pre-digital office copiers like the ditto machine (spirit duplicator), mimeograph, hectograph, and tabletop offset press freed 1960’s radical artists and writers from the constraints of the publishing industry and brought the power of the printing press to The People. These writers/publishers of the period, like Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Diane DiPrima, d.a. levy, and Ed Sanders were not the first to use cheap copying technology to produce “democratic multiples,” however.

Blue-collar teenage fans of far-fetched adventure stories had been creating an international network of amateur “fanzines” since well before World War II. From where did the young fans of the fledgling genre of “scientifiction” draw their influences? Undoubtedly, they were imitating the cheaply printed monthly “pulp” magazines with titles like Amazing Stories and Weird Tales. Also, in the zeitgeist of the new industrial age were the seeds of political, cultural, and artistic revolt. Marcel Duchamp arrived in New York along with a wave of immigrants fleeing WWI and the Russian Revolution, which soon also carried the two-year-old Isaac Asimov to Ellis Island. Like a sine wave on a mad scientist’s oscilloscope, the aesthetics of “highbrow” artists and writers and “lowbrow” outsider zine publishers resonated and reflected each other through the 20th Century.

Self-published chapbooks, underground comics, flyers, and fanzines served as proving grounds for many of the 20th century’s most influential creators. However, the “Mimeograph Revolution” remains a little-examined artistic movement, considered by many to be the realm of “lowbrow” or “outsider” amateurs unworthy of serious research. Yet a closer look at the work of many copier artists reveals a high level of technical sophistication and profound social commentary. The works featured in this exhibit introduce viewers to the vibrant American amateur press scene of the early and mid-20th century, and the media that influenced it.

Much like the internet today, duplicators played an essential role in the development of pop culture genres like science fiction, comic books, and rock and roll, as well as avant-garde art movements like Fluxus, pop art, and concrete poetry.

Click here for a video tour of the exhibit through our Summer Seminar Series

Exhibit Highlights

*The sources of Uburoi* by Charles Chasse under the mask of Alfred Jarry (?), 1921 and *The Childhood of Futurism; that is, The Futurism of Childhood* by Marga, 1914

French symbolist Alfred Jarry was the first to influence both the development of science fiction (SF) and the avant- garde. He wrote time-travel stories alongside his friend H.G. Wells and set the stage for Dada with the production of his revolutionary play, Ubu Roi. The turn of the century marked a new obsession with technological development. The newly-built Eifel Tower stood as a monument to the modernist ideal, while Thomas Edison introduced the first mimeograph at the World’s Fair. The Futurist art movement rejected the past in favor of techno-utopianism. Early SF fans like Myrtle Douglas (Morojo) embraced these radical ideas, as reflected in the design of her Esperanto fanzine Guteto (Droplet.) WWII and the rise of technocracy brought much of this idealism to an end.

*Plastic Saxophone in an Egyptian Tomb* by d.a. levy, 1966.

The avant-garde primarily used duplicators like the hectograph and the mimeograph as a cheap alternative to “better” printing methods like lithography. The true innovators in the use of copiers were an unlikely cohort; science fiction(SF) fandom. Young fans were creating amateur magazines (“fanzines”) imitating the cheaply printed “pulp” magazines like “Amazing Stories” and “Weird Tales.” The fanzines also featured cover art influenced by the graphic style of the avant-garde. For most fans, litho and letterpress printing were out of reach. For them, copiers like home made hecto gelatin pads were the only option. Hectograph and later “ditto” machines produced the distinctive purple copies using aniline dye inks.

*The Martian Newsletter* v4 n4 with cover by Telis Streiff and John Cockroft, 1945 and *Wichita Vortex Sutra* by Allen Ginsberg, 1966

The cross-over between SF fandom, artist books and poetry took place after WWII. Many SF fans returned from the war and attended college, thanks to the G.I. Bill. The university culture of Wichita, Kansas made it a key stop on the cross-country drives of beats like Allen Ginsberg, who titled a poem after a legend he picked up from the Wichita beatniks. The legend of Vortex originated with local beatnik poet (and SF fan) Lee Streiff in the pages of his Mar- tian Newsletter. Unlike other Wichita beat poets and artists, Lee Streiff never escaped the Wichita Vortex, where he taught English and continued to participate in fandom.

Every social justice movement of the 20th century relied on cheap copying technology, coupled with bold (and often crude) graphics to spread their message. Spirit duplicators, often called ditto machines, used a paper master sheet similar to carbon paper to print up to 40 purple or green copies before the master was depleted. The mimeograph, or stencil duplicator, also used a paper master sheet, but allowed the user to make more copies in a wide range of colors. The offset press, used to produce larger runs, is an offshoot of lithography and uses a flexible printing plate. This process is still used on a large scale for newspaper.

Jun 25 2021

Brokaw’s Press Passes Grant Access to Unique History

Posted on June 25, 2021June 25, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by Humanities for the Public Good Intern Patrick Johnson

Tom Brokaw is a name synonymous with journalism, and the journalism that many strive for. His career spans decades and his resume includes trips across several continents and countries, meetings with some of the most famous and infamous world leaders and covering some of the most well-known sporting events in American and world history. He even can say that he was at the Royal Wedding that was watched by more than 750,000 million people around the world.

Beyond the hours of television appearances and bylines, there are unique ways in which we can come to learn and know about Brokaw’s impressive list of journalistic endeavors. The Brokaw collection, located in the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives, is one of those places where viewers can get a glimpse into the history of the world according to the accounts of one of America’s greatest journalistic icons. The collection itself includes artifacts,

correspondences, events, speeches, commentary, writings, awards, and so much more. The collection, known as The Papers of Tom Brokaw: A Life and Career, was donated to the University of Iowa by Brokaw. According to Emily Nelson in an IowaNow post, Brokaw’s time at Iowa (“where he attended the UI during his first year of college, from 1958-59″) led to these artifacts calling the land of the Hawkeyes home in 2016.

While the collection includes a significant number of items, one of the most important to a journalist, but relatively unknown or unimportant to others, are the extensive amount of press passes spanning Brokaw’s career.

That’s where I come in.

I am the fortunate one that gets to work with his passes thanks to my role as a fellow for the Humanities for the Public Good through the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. My role as an intern with Special Collections & Archives, working directly with Liz Riordan (who curated and cultivated the collection as a School of Library and Information Science graduate student at the UI), the department’s Outreach and Engagement Librarian, is to immerse myself into the history of these significant material objects. The hopeful outcome: an interactive timeline that can be used as an educational tool.

Setting a Goal

green card with black and white photo of Brokaw and large black word "Press" at top — 1975 Press Pass for President Gerald Ford visit

The timeline that will come from this summer’s work is intended to be used for educational purposes, whether it is in classrooms or for research. We hope that what users will get out of this is an ability to interact with primary sources, see history through the lens of a journalist and recognize the role journalism plays in the telling of history.

Across the country, teachers are looking to utilize primary sources to teach students how to read and understand history. Teaching with primary sources is a requirement of the Common Core State Standards. The College Board utilizes primary sources to assess students on Advanced Placement exams. Being able to provide a place where students and teachers can see primary sources in action and being used for the purpose of learning is key to this project.

It is also important to recognize and showcase the intricate intersection of journalism and history. This project intends to show just that. Brokaw’s history as a journalist, and his press passes he used for the events he covered and participated in, represents a unique perspective on world history. He is attached to some of the most significant events and people. And the stories he told helped write the history we study. But, what’s unique about this project is that the press passes he used also tell that story. They just do so in a way that is unfamiliar to many. By reading his press passes and seeing where they belong, one can truly see history through the lens of a visual. This project attempts to do just that.

1982 pass for President and First Lady Reagan’s trip to Britain.

The Passes

Thus far in the project, I’ve catalogued all of Brokaw’s press passes in the collection. I built a searchable database to hold several pieces of information associated with the project, including the press passes themselves. The database serves as a place for collaboration among a number of us working on this project, as well as a log for deadlines, questions and ideas. The timeline will include around 150 passes, from nearly 500 different files. They include Presidential trips, sporting and pop culture events and points of war. The passes are diverse and historical. They are both unique and shared. They are history.

At this moment in the project, the fanboy in me is entirely satisfied. Brokaw’s book Boom is what inspired me to be a journalism teacher, which in turn brought me to the place I am today. In getting to read and see his press passes, I feel that I am reliving history through Brokaw’s eyes. I’m getting to immerse myself into Nixon’s resignation, the return of Billie Jean King, the election of a number of presidents, several Olympics and a celebrity ski event. The world of history is coming alive each and every day I interact with Brokaw’s passes, and I cannot wait for you all to experience them as well.

The Hopeful Future: An Appendix to Brokaw’s History

Journalism is seen as the first draft of history. It is through journalistic works that we often come to know and learn about the world and the people around us. Journalism defines our collective memory. What Brokaw did was tell a draft of history that defined a generation. In some respects, I hope this project can serve as a second draft—a history of a history.

While I’m certainly not looking to tell Brokaw’s story, or even the history of the world, through this project, it can and should serve as an opportunity to see how journalism, and its material objects, can help us more deeply understand who we were, who we are and who we may become. Brokaw’s career wrote history for the masses; my job now is to help show that. This isn’t a revision or an edit of his history, but an appendix to develop that history further.

Jun 07 2021

University of Iowa Asian American Oral History Archive

Posted on June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by Asian Alumni and Student Oral History Project Intern Jin Chang

Since the start of the pandemic, prominent leaders have stood in front of crowds of American people calling COVID-19 the “China Virus” and “Kung Flu.” As a result, Chinatown businesses closed as tourists continued to avoid Chinatowns across America and racially charged attacks increased against Asian elders, including a mass shooting in Atlanta specifically targeting Asian Women in the massage industry. Unfortunately, all these moments had precedents in the past. The Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882, which barred the Chinese from immigrating to America, was one of many policies motivated by Yellow Peril, a racist characterization for the fear of Asian people. This racist belief that East Asia and their people pose an existential threat to America influences the belief that Chinatowns are a uniquely dangerous spot of disease. Before COVID-19, Chinatown and Chinese people were blamed by many Americans for smallpox and cholera in the late 1800’s, the bubonic plague in the early 1900’s, and the SARS epidemic as recently as 2003. For the direct violence against Asians in America many of the wars in Twentieth Century American history have been against Asian countries, teaching Americans to view Asians as the enemy.

This longstanding history of Sinophobia, anti-Chinese sentiment, and the belief in Yellow Peril reveals the racism following COVID-19 is not some bizarre aberration. It is America’s history. While many of these notable early instances of racism against Asian people came from areas with heavy Asian populations such as California, Asian and Asian Americans have long lived in Iowa, and the population continues to grow in the present. As a Korean-American myself, I believe our experiences with navigating race and racism here in Iowa follows national trends, but I also believe there are many unique elements that come from reconciling race and racism as an Asian or Asian American in Iowa that is missing from the national discourses of today.

Directory from the Korean Student Association folder in Organizations & Clubs vertical files of University Archives

For the University of Iowa specifically, we are lucky to have the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center (APACC) as a space of community, healing, and empowerment for Asian Americans in the University. However, APACC began in 2003, and Asian and Asian Americans have long been forming communities in the University of Iowa. One group established in 1999, the Asian-American Coalition, served as a consolidated voice for many Asian Americans, and as one of the leading voices in the founding of APACC. Another group, the Asian American Women’s Group sought to address the specific needs of Asian American Women and predates the Asian American Coalition as it was established in 1993. Prior to the 1990s, many Asian international student groups existed on campus such as the Korean Student Association, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and PERMIAS an Indonesian Student Association.

decorative — A brochure found in University Archives for Asian-American Law Students Association, a current student organization

Many of these student groups are underrepresented in the University Archives. The lifecycle of student organizations also means that new iterations exist on our campus to serve Asian and Asian American students today, making it a challenge to capture organizations that have come and gone. While collecting materials from Asian and Asian American groups’ is a priority for the University Archives, the Special Collections & Archives team has also recognized the importance of collecting the stories of communities through oral history. Thus, over the course of the next year, the University Archives will be collecting oral histories of Asian and Asian American students and alumni from the University of Iowa. By capturing our stories and narratives through oral history, we have an opportunity to have our histories recognized and to create a genealogy for future Asian and Asian American students here at the University of Iowa.

If you wish to have your story included in the oral history archive, please contact Jin Chang at jin-chang@uiowa.edu.

Black and white photo of Earl F. Rose with wearing horn-rimmed glasses and white scrubs

May 18 2021

A Unique Perspective: The JFK Assassination Through the Lens of the Earl F. Rose Papers

Posted on May 18, 2021May 20, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by graduate student worker Bailey Adolph.

Black and White photo of Earl Rose wearing horn-rimmed glasses and scrubs — Earl F. Rose circa 1960

A collection that is currently being reprocessed in Special Collections & Archives is the Earl F. Rose Papers, which gives a unique perspective of the John F. Kennedy Assassination and the events that followed. Earl F. Rose was the medical examiner who performed the autopsies of Lee Harvey Oswald, Officer J.D. Tippit, and Jack Ruby. One of the greatest resources in the collection is Rose’s memoir that gives insight into the assassination, the autopsies, the subsequent investigations into the murders, and the resulting conspiracy theories. The following is a brief synopsis of the memoir to give a taste of what it is like to peruse this collection.

On November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. During this time, Earl F. Rose was the medical examiner for Dallas County and he was in his office when Kennedy was brought into the Parkland Memorial Hospital Emergency Room. Rose immediately went to the ER because this death was a homicide, and medicolegal considerations took priority for the future trial. At this time, the federal government had no criminal jurisdiction over murder, even the murder of the president, so this was a matter of the state, meaning the courts of Texas had exclusive jurisdiction over this matter. It also made the most sense for the autopsy to be done in Dallas as the Texas courts would be handling the trial for this crime and therefore an autopsy done in Texas would be more credible. However, the Justice of the Peace had to authorize the autopsy otherwise the control would pass over to the next of kin, Jackie Kennedy. According to Rose’s memoir, he repeatedly told the Justice of the Peace to authorize an autopsy but he shrank away from responsibility. Ultimately, they removed the body and Mrs. Kennedy authorized a partial autopsy to be done at the hospital of her choice, Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington D.C. There were several issues with the incomplete autopsy as it was fraught with errors due to a lack of experience of those performing the autopsy and their inability to properly evaluate the death and gunshot wounds. The autopsy did not ultimately matter for a trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was murdered before one could take place. It did, however, contribute to conspiracy theories in the following years.

A character in this story that is largely unknown is Dallas Officer J.D. Tippit. After Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated the President, he was on the run. Officer Tippit happened to cross his path while he was on patrol, and stopped the pedestrian Oswald to have a chat. Oswald pulled a gun on him and shot him four times before leaving the scene and running to a theater where he was later apprehended. Officer Tippit was dead upon arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital and Earl F. Rose performed the autopsy. In his memoir, Rose states that “It was imperative that the investigation into the death of Officer Tippit be thorough and complete for the prosecution of Lee Harvey Oswald, the putative defendant, might hinge on this autopsy information in the event that it was not possible to prosecute Oswald for the assassination of the president,” (Dallas: My View of History, 1963-1968, p. 76). Following his apprehension, Oswald was held in the Dallas City Police Department and was to be transferred to the Dallas County Jail the morning of November 24, 1963.

Slide image of Jack Ruby's brain — Slide image from Jack Ruby’s autopsy

That morning, Jack Ruby shot Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters while handcuffed between two Dallas detectives. Rose went to his office in Parkland Memorial Hospital while Oswald was rushed there for emergency surgery, which was unsuccessful and he died there. Rose then performed a medicolegal forensic autopsy in order to maximize the amount of information to be used during the trial of Jack Ruby. He subsequently used the document to testify at the trial in 1964. Jack Ruby, Oswald’s murderer, was charged and convicted for first degree murder in March 1964. However, the conviction was later reversed and delayed for a new trial by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He died on January 3, 1967 from primary bronchial cancer of the lung before a retrial could be held. Rose was brought in to perform this autopsy as well.

Meanwhile, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Warren Commission in January 1964 in order to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. Those involved concluded in a report released on September 7, 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, without any conspiracy, foreign or domestic, (Rose, p. 155). However, there were many discrepancies and unanswered questions in the Report of the Warren Commission and this fueled conspiracy theories. Therefore, the House Select Committee on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. was at work from 1977 to 1978. Rose was a member of the panel of forensic pathologists appointed as consultants for this committee. He traveled to Washington D.C. to review the forensic material and to give his testimony regarding what he observed. After all information was gathered, the hearings were held and they came to the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald committed the crime and that while the committee believes that there were two gunmen, scientific evidence does not support that.

Two test bullets sit in white tissue in a clear box — Test bullet from the gun used on Lee Harvey Oswald

So, how did this collection end up at Iowa? Earl F. Rose began teaching pathology at the University of Iowa in 1968, retiring in 1992. While he was working for the University of Iowa, Rose autopsied Roy J. Carver, a benefactor of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, when he died in 1981. This experience is described in another of Rose’s personal writings, My Ana. He and his wife Marilyn were quite active in the Iowa City community later in life as well, which included donating his materials to the University of Iowa Special Collections & Archives. In this collection, there are actual pieces to the story that was just told. Newspapers, slides and reports from Lee Harvey Oswald’s and Jack Ruby’s autopsies, the test bullet shot out of the gun used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald, personal writings describing the monumental period of history that he lived through and played a role in. The items work alongside Rose’s personal writings and actual legal documentation to give the researcher a unique perspective into a highly publicized event in American history. It is arranged in a way that allows the researcher to learn about the event through Rose’s words and then to view supplemental materials that strengthen the narrative. Finally, the collection concludes with correspondence between Rose and conspiracy theorists that leave the researcher either considering other outcomes or amused by the ideas that others had when conducting their own research. The Earl F. Rose Papers is a collection with exceptional depth and we welcome researchers to come discover more about the John F. Kennedy Assassination as well as the unknown key player Earl F. Rose.

Find more on the Earl F. Rose Papers online finding aid

Apr 21 2021

Iowa’s Medieval Manuscripts Collection Goes to the Dogs

Posted on April 21, 2021May 12, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following was written by Curator of Books and Maps, Eric Ensley

Iowa’s Medieval Manuscripts Collection has gone to the dogs, or at least to a new book with dog-themed decoration.

Just in time for the tulips blooming across Iowa, our newest medieval book, a beautifully decorated book of hours, comes to us from late medieval Holland. In short, a book of hours is a collection of prayers and liturgical offices that may have been owned by a layperson or a member of the clergy. Books of hours are among our most popular requests for classes and one glance will tell you why— these books are often elaborately decorated with flora and fauna drawings, gold leaf, and even donor portraits in some deluxe copies.

Calendar page found in the book of hours that helps localize the book

Yet our new book of hours is a bit more restrained than other fifteenth-century examples. There’s no gold leaf and major decoration is limited to only four pages, where elaborate penwork and coloration lends the book an almost cartoon-like quality. The relative restraint of this book and its localization to the Netherlands—more on that in a moment—suggest it may be emblematic of the Devotio moderna, a late medieval movement in Northern Europe that emphasized piety and asceticism in lifestyle and possessions.

Books of hours are fascinating testaments to the growth of book ownership among laypeople in the later Middle Ages. Though still owned by a very small and wealthy subset of society, books were often prized possessions used to showcase wealth and piety. Despite being prized possessions, many books made at this time lack exact dates and location of production. However, we can still “localize” or try to get an idea of where a book of hours is from by looking at several clues. For example,. books of hours typically include calendars that may call for veneration of local saints. Likewise, every book of hours has a “Use” that subtly shifts the wording and order of liturgical office based on the diocese in which it was used. Books of hours from late medieval England, for example, can be either Sarum Use—the Use of Salisbury—or the less common Use of York.

Ownership mark from a later owner of the book of hours

Our book of hours can be localized to Holland based on some of the saints that appear in the calendar, e.g. Saint Pontianus, patron saint of Ultrecht, in January and the Feast of the Translation of Saint Martin in July both point to the Use of Utrecht. Then, the cartoon-like decoration is unique among books of hours that comes almost exclusively from the city of Delft. Finally, our book of hours contains several ownership marks, including “Jan Kerstants” and “Robert Ghilet, 1629,” both of which are Dutch names.

But what about all the dogs? This book of hours has a full-page decorative ensemble depicting dogs with foliage extending from their mouths. Likewise, the contemporary panel-stamped binding depicts the story of Saint Roch, who cared for plague victims and contracted the plague himself. According to the story, Roch flees to the forest after becoming ill, where he is brought food and has his wounds licked by hounds, perhaps suggesting that the canine motif of the binding is also present in the decorative program within the book. Saint Roch is also the patron saint of pilgrims, and one might contemplate a diminutive book of hours such as this accompanying a pilgrim as he or she traveled—perhaps with a canine companion of his or her own!

Many thanks to Dr. Scott Gwara and Dr. Ed van der Vlist, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the National Library of the Netherlands for their aid in identifying this book of hours.

Once cataloged, the call number for this lovely little book will be xMMS.Bo11.

Apr 16 2021

An Activist’s Legacy: Ayako Mori Costantino

Posted on April 16, 2021April 16, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by Olson Graduate Research Assistant, Rachel Miller-Haughton

Ayako Mori Costantino was a Japanese-American woman whose work with the communities she lived in and belonged to left a lasting impact. Her papers were donated to the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA) and include photos, letters, books, audio tapes, and memorabilia from her life.

Born in Sacramento, California in 1924, Ayako and her family were moved, as the US government mandated, to Tule Lake, a War Relocation Authority center. The Mori family were just a few of the over 110,000 Japanese Americans, over half of whom (66,000) were US citizens, forced into prison camps during the start of U.S. involvement in World War II. They were rounded up and imprisoned under the Roosevelt administration, allowed only to bring what they could carry and losing irreplaceable person property as well as land and other assets.

A young Ayako (center, back row) and the rest of the Mori family around the time of their internment, date unknown

Ayako attended the Tri-State High School in Tule Lake. When students were allowed to leave the camps to attend college, in 1943, she moved to Chicago. In 1945 she began working for the US Civil Service in St. Louis, Missouri; after the end of World War II she moved to Japan for a stenography job. There she met an American military servicemember, Anthony “Tony” Costantino, and married him in 1948. The Costantinos had two children: a son, Mori, and a daughter, Toni.

In 1956, the family moved to Iowa City so Tony Costantino could teach at the University of Iowa. It was here that Ayako Mori Costantino became involved in civil rights, women’s rights, and the rights of marginalized people. She was instrumental in creating the Iowa City Human Rights Ordinance in 1963, working as an organizer and hosting events. She was chair of the Human Relations Commission, an advocate in affirmative action and employment and housing discrimination cases. She worked with the League of Women Voters and helped to pass a 1964 fair housing law to prevent racial discrimination in housing.

Her papers include letters to notable and influential people, and show that Mori Costantino was not afraid to lend her powerful voice to a myriad causes. One cause close to her experience was redress for survivors and families of the Japanese American internment camps. Her letter to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin from March 1989 discusses the need for reparations, saying “a government not required to pay for its errors may be prone to repeat its errors.” She goes on to acknowledge she wrote a personal account of the impact internment had on each of her family members to President George H. Bush, asking him to increase the funds promised. Many such accounts exist in her papers collected at IWA, not only her story but a larger image of the fight for redress—that is, an official apology and financial reparations for the invaluable losses suffered by Americans of Japanese descent.

Until 2020, when she passed away, Mori Costantino was an activist involved in many causes. She chaired the Johnson County (Iowa) League of Women Voters. She also served with organizations including the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Women’s Political Caucus, the Education Equality Advisory Committee, and the Civil Liberties Union. She was elected to represent Iowa at the National Women’s Conference in 1977 and campaigned for many Democrats, be they local representatives in Johnson County or presidential candidates.

Ayako “A. Mori” Costantino was a woman who survived internment as a teen, then turned around and fought to right the injustices done to her and her community. She worked tirelessly as an advocate, a defender, and a civil and human rights champion. Her collection at IWA paints a picture of a person who deeply valued family, was a formidable writer, and committed her life to causes she believed in. She not only worked for Asian Americans but for marginalized and underserved people everywhere. It is well worth a trip to visit her papers and artifacts, to get to know this remarkable woman and understand her legacy.

Mar 29 2021

Science Fiction’s Forgotten Femfanzines

Posted on March 29, 2021March 29, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

“From the Classroom” is a series that features some of the great work and research from students who visit our collections. Below is a blog by Michael Willis from Dr. Jennifer Burek Pierce’s class “History of Readers and Reading” (SLIS:5600:0001)

Science Fiction’s Forgotten Femfanzines

By Michael Willis

Black Flames emerged from the recesses of the library archives to shed light on the nearly forgotten history of femfanzines. Edited and produced in January 1946 by Virginia “Jim-E” Daugherty, Black Flames, is one of a handful of known Science Fiction fanzines specifically meant for women, and a distinctive fanzine featuring work exclusively produced by women.

Virginia Daugherty, editor of *Black Flames*

An author identified only as ‘Tigrina’ was among the contributors to Black Flames. According to Dr. Lisa Yaszek, professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and the inciting editor of the anthology Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction, Tigrina was the nickname and later pseudonym of Edythe Eyde, who wrote the featured story of Black Flames. Eyde would later go on to create Vice Versa, widely considered the first lesbian magazine in North America, for which she would be “honored by the gay rights organization ONE, Inc, … and in 2010 she was inducted into the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Hall of Fame” (Yaszek 253-254). Rich Dana, Olson Graduate Research Assistant for Special Collections & Archives at the University of Iowa, in his recent Seminar Presentation, uncovered a series of letters Tigrina wrote to Rusty Hevelin in which, while writing in the persona of her pseudonym “she declared herself a Satanist. She did these crazy cartoons. She stood up to a lot of guys in fandom and she really excited a lot of people … she really did make a big splash on the fan scene …[and] pushed the boundaries of fanzines”.

Black Flames also enshrines, in a full page tribute, the awe inspiring work of Leigh Brackett whose first novel, No Good from a Corpse, so impressed Director Howard Hawks that he hired her to work on the screenplay for The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Dr. Yaszek writes in her book The Future is Female! that Brackett was so “busy in Hollywood, she asked her friend Ray Bradbury to complete her novella ‘Lorelei of the Red Mist’ published jointly [later] in 1946.” That was only the beginning for Brackett who went on to continue publishing in several genres while also working on several other screenplays. Then late in 1977 a well-known Hollywood director, impressed with her work, personally selected her to write the first draft screenplay for arguably the fan favorite movie of one of the most popular franchises in all of Science Fiction. George Lucas personally selected Leigh Bracket to write the first draft of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

With such amazing and influential women among its contributors, why wasn’t there more than a single issue of Black Flames? All three women — Daugherty, Tigrina, and Brackett –were members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society around the same time, but after Black Flames Daugherty seems to disappear into history. Kathryn Heffner, Post Graduate Researcher at the University of Kent, explains that the fate of Black Flames was not unusual.

“Fanzine production, especially in that time period, embraced ‘one shots’ or single publications,” Heffner explains. Sometimes, as in the case of Black Flames, publications were developed as part of a “combo zine,” a partnered activity not unlike the collabs we now see on YouTube. Heffner added that two conditions factored in these one-off publications: First, active participation in a fandom meant being involved in “other fan activities like conference organizing,” which limited how much time they had available for the labor of writing and publishing. Another factor, Heffner said, was the not insignificant cost of mimeograph production.

Perhaps similarly striking stories lie smoldering in the far corners of the Rusty Hevelin Science Fiction Collection, waiting for an intrepid scholar to spark them into life.

Note: The author wishes to thank Peter Balestrieri, Curator of the Rusty Hevelin Collection of Science Fiction at UI Special Collections, for sharing his background knowledge and additional items from the Hevelin Collection that helped bring the story of Black Flames to life.

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