As the Iowa Digital Library approaches the 100,000-item mark, we’re celebrating this milestonetemp by highlighting some of our favorite items from the collections.

Title: Campus plan of The University of Iowa, 1930
Creator: University of Iowa
Collection: University of Iowa Campus Maps Digital Collection

A 1930 vision of our institution, titled “Campus Plan of the State University of Iowa,” was inspired, in part, by the Olmsted Brothers’ 1905 report commissioned by then-president George MacLean. (Olmsted Brothers. The report of Olmsted brothers, landscape architects of Brookline, Massachusetts : outlining plans for the future arrangement of the grounds and buildings of the State University of Iowa. [Iowa City] : Published by the University, 1905.)

The plan presents a sweeping and idealized view of the campus that includes a proposed library designed along the lines of the Pentacrest buildings. Another 20 years would pass before the present-day brick structure appeared.

Every time I look at this image, I think of the ambitions and aspirations of that time, which are related so well in Tim Onosko’s 1979 book, “Wasn’t the Future Wonderful? A View of Trends and Technology from the 1930s.”

–David McCartney
University Archivist, Special Collections Dept.