In honor of the upcoming anniversary of the birth of children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (b. July 28, 1866), we’re featuring the Libraries’ digital flip-book version of our first-edition copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. (Be sure to turn on your speaker for page-flipping sound.) To view more digitized books, please visit IowaContinue reading “Birthday for Beatrix”

“With a fantastic and unknown power, the tape recording commanded my imagination to fly and run. That’s why the Peter Nazareth Collection brought back to my life — with all its intensity — one of the most remarkable experiences I’ve ever lived.” — Venezuelan poet Mariela Arvelo, featured in the Peter Nazareth Collection of digitizedContinue reading “‘A fantastic and unknown power’”

The University of Iowa Libraries has reached five million volumes! To celebrate this milestonetemp, we helped give some special treatment to the lucky five-millionth title, The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, edited by David Hudson, Marvin Bergman and Loren Horton and recently published by the University of Iowa Press to spotlight prominent Iowans throughout history. TheContinue reading “Happy five-millionth book!”

In honor of Independence Day, please enjoy these patriotic artifacts, which are among the 250,000 digital objects viewable in the Iowa Digital Library.  “Doodle Dandy of the U.S.A.” promotional brochure, 1920s Vincent Paints July 4th Fireworks Over Manhattan by Greg Constantine, 1982 “Don’t burn your fingers…” postcard, 1908 “Six Miniatures: Fireworks” performed by Catherine Rowe, 1973 Continue reading “Doodle Dandy”

By February in Iowa, ice, snow, and freezing temperatures have dragged on for so long that it becomes hard to remember a time when it wasn’t winter. Luckily, our new Iowa City Flood Digital Collection brings the summer back in vivid detail. As documented in the collection’s photographs and oral history interviews, only a littleContinue reading “Flood of memories”

The switch to digital telecasts is on, and to mark the occasion the Iowa Digital Library has released the W9XK Experimental Television at Iowa collection celebrating the birth of American prime-time TV more than 75 years ago. This “birth” didn’t happen in a laboratory at AT&T, General Electric or RCA, however. Instead, regularly scheduled TVContinue reading “UI’s 1930s experiments with television broadcasting”

While the kitsch award in our new collection of digitized Lincolniana probably goes to a photograph of a horse with markings resembling the president’s profile, the 1959 promotional comic book “All aboard, Mr. Lincoln!” published by the Association of American Railroads comes in a close second. Stilted dialogue aside, the comic’s premise is valid —Continue reading “All aboard, Mr. Lincoln”

As we prepare to make a fresh start of new projects in 2009, we’re featuring a few New Year’s-related items from past collections in Iowa Digital Library, ranging from a Jan. 1 diary entry in 1864 to a presidential campaign video captured 144 years later.   Thank you to all of the Libraries staff who have helped us make soContinue reading “A fresh start”

Thanks to a $32,700 grant from the National Archives, DLS wil be working with the Libraries’ Preservation and Special Collections departments to digitize the microfilm edition of the Henry A. Wallace Papers. Iowa native Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) was a geneticist, author, economist, businessman, U.S. vice president, and third-party presidential candidate. A wartime V.P. under Franklin Delano Roosevelt,Continue reading “The modern vice president”

This Fall, DLS and Central Technical Services staff have been working on scanning and providing metadata for materials from the Libraries’ Special Collections Department related to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Civil War documents include diaries and letters written by soldiers and female aid workers describing theirContinue reading “Little did he know”