Holiday scenes from the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station images, arranged in order from most to least pathetic-Charlie-Brown-looking trees:
NonfictioNow 2010 Recordings Available
On November 4-6, 2010, the Department of English hosted NonfictioNow 2010, the third Bedell Nonfiction Conference. About 450 writers and readers met in the Iowa Memorial Union to explore the past, present, and future of nonfiction in its myriad forms.
The Iowa Digital Library has extended the reach of those discussions to online users everywhere through the Virtual Writing University Archive. The archive has catalogued recordings of the 2010 convening, which are available for streaming as .mp3 files.
Nonfiction fans can indulge in the talks by the 2010 keynote speakers, which include Alison Bechdel, the autobiographical cartoonist behind Dykes to Watch Out For; Rebecca Solnit, author of 13 books about art, landscape, community, ecology, politics, hope, and memory; and John Edgar Wideman, author or more than 18 books and two-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award.
The conference also welcomed back alumni from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop like David Shields, author of Reality Hunger: a Manifesto. Other renowned and burgeoning writers joined him in dissecting their craft and sharing their learning. Topics covered several sub-genres of nonfiction like memoir, journalism and travel writing, as well as creative nonfiction from Australia and Ireland. The archive also includes recordings from the readings given throughout the conference.
The collection was developed through the assistance of The University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science.
WW2 in Iowa Thankgiving: Turkey, potatoes, and exotic dancers
“Prison camp soldiers gobble turkeys!”, Clarinda Herald Journal, Nov. 23, 1944
“WAC tables turned for Thanksgiving dinner,” Des Moines Register, Nov. 26, 1943
“Gets some expert advice,” Des Moines Evening Tribune, Nov. 25, 1943
Among the expected stories of soldiers celebrating Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner and all the trimmings, the World War II Iowa Press Clippings digital collection also includes the saga of “Amber d’Georg,” a.k.a. Kathryn Gregory, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps member who created a mini-scandal in Iowa during the holiday season of 1942. After going AWOL from her station at Fort Des Moines — she found it “dull,” according to an interview with her mother — the former chorus girl turned up a few weeks later at a Des Moines casino, performing a striptease act for a Thankgiving Day audience. Several more weeks and one “other than honorable” dischage later, Gregory was on a bus back to Fort Worth, Texas, possibly following a more official act of disrobing: “If she lacks clothing, she will be given the necessary portions of a WAAC uniform, stripped of its insignia,” tsked the Des Moines Register.
“Lost WAAC found doing strip-tease,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Dec. 6, 1942
see also
“In a strip-tease role, an absent WAAC is found,” Des Moines Evening Tribune, Dec. 4, 1942
“Dancer’s case puzzles WAAC,” Des Moines Morning Register, Dec. 5, 1942
“Mother knew Amber was on the stage,” Des Moines Evening Tribune, Dec. 5, 1942
“Amber d’Georg is ousted after WAAC hearing,” Des Moines Tribune, Dec. 14, 1942
“WAACs oust casino dancer,” Des Moines Register, Dec. 15, 1942
Dear Diary
We were delighted to run across this blog post from writer, editor, and UI alum Alison Feldmann on the IDL’s Historic Iowa Children’s Diaries digital collection. We have a deep love for historic diaries as well, and we’re currently hard at work developing a site that will allow the public to help enhance our collections through “crowdsourcing” or collaborative transcription of diaries and other manuscript materials. Stay tuned!
…After poking around the Digital Library — of which there is an abundance of cool stuff, and I’ll be posting much more! — I came across (and was blown away by) their collection of historic Iowa children’s diaries. These tomes originated with early settler children — teenagers, actually — of the 1850s through the early 20th century. The best part is that some have been transcribed and biographies of the kids are provided. I kind of fell in love with the pages of the last diary shown above, mostly because of the doodles, kept by 14 year old Linnie Hagerman (1852-1934), of Keokuk, Iowa. (Check out that handwriting! Gorgeously messy.) Born in Missouri in 1852, Linnie moved with her family to Keokuk at age 10, and remained there for the rest of her life. She began drawing by doodling in her diary, and later became an artist, creating many oil paintings during the 1880s.
An exciting transcription:
“Sitting room Saturday Nov 24th 1866
Evening
Sat down to wash the baby, when a man came running in saying ‘Your house is on fire’ and Mrs Cunningham ran to the stairs screamed for the children to come down stairs she got the children over to Mrs McNamaras I went over to Mr McNamara and got Emma and Nellie and brought them home with me Mrs Armitrout [Armentrout], Mrs Grim, Mrs Johnson Mrs Hill, Sallie Beadle [and] Emma & Nellie Cunningham were here to dinner. Mrs Grim brought her baby with her and so did Mrs Armentrout but they would not come to me, well I did nurse the little Grim baby awhile. I have been over to Mrs Fryers several times today on errands. Emma Cunningham went home away and left Nellie towards evening[.] Nell got dissatisfied and wanted to go over to Mrs McNamaras so I took her over and I went over to the burnt house Emma and Nellie came back with me and our ore [are] going to stay all night. Oh! I forgot to say Mrs Cunningham had a wardrobe full of the best clothing and all of Dan Morgin clothes burnt.”
Read the full post at Teenangster:
http://teenangster.net/2010/07/dear-diary/
Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature iPhone App
Developers of the Writing Universtiy at the University of Iowa have released a new iPhone app that focuses on Iowa City’s place as a UNESCO City of Literature. The app can be downloaded through the iTunes App Store. More information can be found through the UI News Service.
The Virtual Writing University Archive is another resource that brings together hundreds of audio and video recordings of emerging and renounded writers of the International Writing Program, Live from Prairie Lights, NonfictioNOW, and more.
Digital humanities faculty searches underway
At Digital Library Services we are excited to see the new job postings for four faculty positions in support of a cluster initiative in Public Humanities in a Digital World. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is searching for the first three of an eventual six positions under this initiative. The new School of Library and Information Science director will be an active participant in the initiative as well.
“All positions in this initiative require interest in engaging collaboratively with communities and organizations across and outside the university. New hires under this initiative will actively participate in exploring the role of digital practices on the production of scholarship and creative work in projects central to the humanities,” according to the job descriptions.
- Asst. Prof., Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean
(Joint Appt., Dept. of Classics and Dept. of Religious Studies) - Asst. Prof., Hispanic Creative Writing and Media
(Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese) - Asst. Prof., Digital Literacies / Visual Cultures
(Dept. of English) - Director, School of Library and Information Science
For more information on the cluster hires, see the recent news release.
—Nicole Saylor
Head, Digital Library Services
Short Fiction Award
Barbara Hamby’s “Lester Higata’s 20th Century” was announced as the winner of the 2010 John Simmons Short Fiction Award winner from the University of Iowa Press. The John Simmons Short Fiction Award — named for the first director of the University of Iowa Press — was created in 1988 to complement the existing Iowa Short Fiction Award.
Winning entries from 1970-2000 can be freely accessed through Iowa Research Online, the University of Iowa’s Institutional Repository. Books by more recent award winners can be purchased from the University of Iowa Press.
Homecoming 1930-2010
Take a trip back 80 years with a few homecoming memories from the Iowa Digital Library.
Iowa-Penn State homecoming football game, Nov. 15, 1930
Iowa-Penn State homecoming football game, Nov. 15, 1930
Homecoming corn monument, 1930
Cheerleader placing pin on hawk during Homecoming festivities, Nov. 3, 1956
…but homecoming wouldn’t be complete without the parade
Happy autumn
Celebrate the start of fall with these images from the Iowa Digital Library:
Harvest Aglow by Douglas Eckheart, 2005
Editorial cartoon by Ding Darling, Nov. 1904
Postcard from Epworth, Iowa, 1910
Page from Helen Grundman’s 4-H scrapbook, Prescott, Iowa, 1931
Historic photos of UI child development studies featured in online exhibit
Frederick Kent’s “Colleges and Departments” photograph series, covering the early to mid-20th century and housed in the University Archives, is the definitive pictorial history of academics at The University of Iowa. But among expected subject matter like scholars, scientists, and artists, one might be surprised to find over 500 images of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. These historic photographs, taken at the now-defunct Iowa Child Welfare Research Station, are available in a new online exhibit from the University of Iowa Libraries: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ictcs/icwrs.html
Thanks to the Station, a research center in operation from 1917 to 1974, The University of Iowa was highly influential in the development of child psychology and child development studies. A few milestonetemps in the Station’s history include anthropometric studies used to create national standards for child growth rates, the establishment of the country’s first free-standing preschool, and IQ studies demonstrating the importance of early intervention that paved the way for later social programs such as Head Start.
The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station web exhibit is part of the Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes Digital Collection, which features nearly 6,000 historic images of The University of Iowa and its surrounding community. The collection is online at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ictcs
