Iowa Byington Reed was born in 1851 and grew up in the Iowa City area. She was quite an accomplished seamstress, and she married William "Will" Reed in 1896. The University of Iowa acquired her papers and diaries and digitized them for access by the general public. Visitors can read through these works to learn about her daily life, her lengthy courtship with Will, and her visit to the St. Louis...

Radio Diaries is a nonprofit radio production company which looks "to find extraordinary stories in ordinary places, to create original and moving first-person documentaries - true radio verite - from voices that are rarely heard." And that it does. Radio Diaries staff train all kinds of people -- from teenagers to the elderly -- to become reporters. These fledgling reporters create tapes about...