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: The Brownie Scouts in the Circus
Creator: Mildred Wirt Benson
Collection: Mildred Wirt Benson Digital Collection

Ghosts, kidnappers, thieves, and blackmailers abound in the novels of Nancy Drew author and UI alum Mildred Wirt Benson; our digital cover gallery features her intrepid teen sleuths battling a variety of these dark forces. But for me, the unintentionally terrifying dust jacket illustration from this 1949 title in Wirt’s Brownie Scouts series is the most spine-chilling — and definitely one of the most memorable — images from the collection.

–Jen Wolfe
Metadata Librarian, Digital Library Services