Anybody who spends more than a few months on a university campus knows how quickly the buildings and landscape can change. For instance, a sidewalk I used to traverse everyday on my way to and from the Main Library while in library school (ca. 2003) is now the Adler Journalism Building. A whole swath of land south of the library across Burlington Street will soon (2010?) be a huge recreation center. (I can’t wait!)For as many changes as there can be in five years, the campus space at The University of Iowa has been documented through maps since its founding in 1847.

The Libraries have completed digitization on nearly 100 campus maps from holdings in the University Archives, which are now available online as the University of Iowa Campus Maps Digital Collection.There are some particularly eye-catching maps in the collection, especially the 1930 campus plan depicting a unified, neoclassical campus that was not exactly finished that way.(The map shows the Main Library in Pentacrest-matching limestonetemp…we got red brick instead.)

Mighty Morphing Power Building

There are maps from every course catalog since 1904, and although they appear extremely similar from one year to the next, subtle difference can hold clues to when a particular building was erected.

 

For example, the photo on the left is a view south from the library of the Law Building (present day Gilmore Hall), and is noted as being taken during the 1900s. Looking at the course catalog maps, 1907-1908 shows the spot from which this picture was taken as a Future Armory and Athletic Pavilion (#20), and 1908-1909 shows the same area as a Proposed Gymnasium (#26), but finally in 1909-1910, the building is labeled as the College of Law. So we know the photograph must have been taken no earlier than 1909.

 

Thanks to DLS Library Assistant Bobby Duncan for his work scanning the maps and building the digital collection.

See the UI News Press Release for more information on the collection.

–Mark F. Anderson
Digital Initiatives Librarian