The early 20th century was a bustling time for many cities in the Midwest, and Des Moines was no exception. During this time, the city added streetcars, built many new public schools, and welcomed thousands of new residents. This digital collection from Drake University's Cowles Library offers hundreds of images of the city from 1904 through 1914. First-time visitors should read the introductory...

What were children in Iowa concerned with in the 1870s? This nice digital collection from the University of Iowa Libraries starts to answer that question by bringing together 11 different diaries from young Iowans writing from 1862 to 1907. The diaries were provided by the Iowa Women's Archives, the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Old Capitol Museum. Visitors can click on the Highlights...

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...

Iowa Folklife Volume 2 is a companion website to the website Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions. Iowa Folklife Volume 2 does a wonderful job of allowing online visitors the opportunity to explore the "traditional music, foods, dance, rituals, and crafts of Iowa's diverse cultures." The areas explored here are found at the top of the page, and include "Blues", "Bosnian",...

Lovers of all things historical, a number of us at the Scout Report could not get enough of the Iowa Maps Digital Collection. As the second-most shared resource this past year, it's clear that our readers enjoyed it too! The Iowa Digital Library allows interested parties to whiz through years of Iowa history, even providing a clickable map of specific counties. The site impressed us with its...

The Poweshiek History Preservation Project is a joint effort between the Grinnell College Libraries and the Drake Community Library to preserve the history of the people and places of Poweshiek County. Over the years, dozens of community members have brought in letters, photographs, scrapbooks, ledgers, and other documents that tell the area's history. This site contains over 120 items, including...

Patrobas Cassius Robinson was a student at the University of Iowa from 1923 to 1927 and his accounts of his experience offer a rare glimpse into African American student life at Iowa in the early 20th century. His scrapbooks and papers were digitized by the University of Iowa Libraries and are available for general perusal here. Visitors can look through his 38-page scrapbook, along with his...