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: Helen Grundman 4-H scrapbook, 1928-1932
Creator: Helen Grundman
Collection: Iowa Women’s Scrapbooks Digital Collection

When 4-H judges awarded Helen Grundman a blue ribbon for most complete scrapbook, they knew what they were doing. The lengthy volume, weighing in at 400+ pages, presented numerous challenges in the digitization process, but the effort paid off. Now online in its entirety, the artifact provides an invaluable and highly-detailed view of rural American girlhood during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

A highlight of the scrapbook is Grundman’s trip to Chicago as a delegate for the 1930 national 4-H meeting — a journey she documents exhaustively, including everything from the wrapper on the straw of the beverage she consumed during her train ride from Iowa, to a list of hotel etiquette tips provided by 4-H chaperones. (“#6: Do not scream in going up the elevator. The sensation is a strange one but do not disturb others by making a noise.”) Decorated with picture postcards, the hand-written account on this page evokes the wonder of 16-year-old Helen’s first encounter with the big city: “…when we woke up, we actually could not believe ourselves to be in Chicago…”

–Jen Wolfe
Metadata Librarian, Digital Library Services