Special Collections Department: Archival & Manuscript Collections

Lists, Indexes, & Guides

Sources for the History of Agriculture & Rural Life
in the Iowa State University Library

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS

ALLIN, BUSHROD W. (1899-1968). Papers, 1932-1958. 1.68 linear feet. MS-011. U.S. Department of Agriculture official. Born on a farm near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Bushrod Allin lived from his early youth until the age of 18 near Cleburne, Texas. He received a B.S. (1921) and a Ph.D. (1927) from the University of Wisconsin in agricultural economics. Allin was an instructor at Wisconsin for two years and taught at the Wharton School of Finance in 1934-1935. The rest of his career was with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He worked first in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the planning office of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (1938-1942), and then as special assistant to the chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (1942-1946). Allin became chair of the Outlook and Situation Board in 1946, where he was responsible for reviewing all situation and outlook reports published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1965. In 1960 he was a consultant to the government of India for the International Cooperation Administration, issuing a report on the development of an agricultural outlook service. For many years Allin taught in the USDA Graduate School. In 1962, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the USDA, and he was president of the American Farm Economic Association in 1961-1962. Collection consists principally of Allin's writings, including articles, books, reports, book reviews, addresses, speeches, and lectures. It also contains correspondence, Congressional testimony, newspaper clippings, and biographical materials. Correspondence largely deals with his lectures in the Graduate School of the USDA and with University of Wisconsin alumni affairs. Processed.

BEDELL, BERKLEY (1921- ). Congressional Papers, 1974-1985. 300 linear feet. RS 21/07/29. Democratic U.S. Congressman. Berkley Bedell represented Iowa's 6th District in the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1986. Bedell was born on March 5, 1921, in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and graduated from Spirit Lake High School. He attended Iowa State University from 1940 to 1942. Bedell married Elinor Healy in 1943, and the couple had three children. He was a lieutenant in the Army Air Force from 1942-1945. Bedell was the organizer and first president of Iowa Great Lakes Student Loan Fund, Inc., and he served on the board of directors of Morningside College. In Congress he was a member of the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Small Business. Bedell was chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and the Economy and a member of the Subcommittee on Energy, Environment and Safety Issues Affecting Small Business. Collection includes correspondence, special mailings, constituents' letters, press releases, newspaper clippings, and photographs documenting Bedell's career as a legislator. Files are from his Washington, D.C., and Mason City offices. Unprocessed.

BOWERS, ADRIAN L. (1885-1977). Papers, 1934-1936. .42 linear foot. MS-072. Insurance and real estate businessman of Le Mars, Iowa. During the Depression Adrian Bowers was appointed Federal Conciliation Commissioner for farmers facing foreclosures. Collection includes radio talks, taped oral history interviews, and newspaper clippings. Processed.

CAMP, JOHN E. (1915- 1988). Papers, 1970-1988. .42 linear foot. MS-022. State representative. John Camp was born on March 5, 1915, on a farm in Clinton County, Iowa, the son of Walter and Johanna Camp. Camp was a member of the Clinton County Farm Bureau Board, the Republican Farm Council, and the Clinton County Board of Supervisors. As a representative in the Iowa legislature, he was chair of the Appropriations Committee and a member of committees involved with state government and Iowa development. Collection contains letters written to Camp by his constituents from 1970-1972, as well as biographical material about Camp. Processed.

CASSADY, RAYMOND W. (1881-1924). Papers, 1850-1973, n.d. 2.09 linear feet. MS-339. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and farmer. Raymond Whiting Cassady was born 13 November 1881 near Whiting, Iowa. He studied animal husbandry at Iowa State College (University) in 1903 and 1908-1909 and was a member of Iowa State’s 1909 stock judging team which won first place at the International Stock Show in Chicago. He engaged in farming with his father under the firm name of E. M. Cassady & Son, and he managed their Walnut Ridge Stock Farm. In 1923 Governor Nate E. Kendall appointed Cassady as Iowa’s first Secretary of Agriculture. Cassady died on 7 July 1924. The collection contains correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and his certificate of appointment as Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, information on the Walnut Ridge Stock Farm, and materials on Whiting family history. Processed.

DARRINGTON, WILLIAM E. (1904- ). Papers, 1950-1970. 2.1 linear feet. MS-063. State representative. William E. Darrington was born in 1904 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He was a state representative for Harrison County, Iowa, from 1951 to 1970, except for one term in 1965. In 1959 he was appointed Speaker Pro Tempore of the Iowa House of Representatives. Darrington also farmed, primarily breeding cattle. Processed.

EVANS, COOPER (1924- ). Congressional Papers, 1980-1986. 71.5 linear feet. RS 21/07/102. Politician, engineer, farmer, and Republican U.S. Congressman. Cooper Evans represented Iowa's Third District in the House of Representatives from 1980 to 1986. He was born in 1924 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and attended public school in Grundy Center. He attended Iowa State University, receiving his B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1942 and his M.S. in civil engineering in 1949. He graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1963. Evans served in the U.S. Army Infantry from 1943-1946, and was a lieutenant colonel in the Corps of Engineers from 1949-1965. He served on the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1956-1958. He was a member of the General Staff at the Pentagon and was director of advanced lunar missions at NASA from 1963-1965. Beginning in 1965, Evans farmed near Grundy Center. He was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1975-1979, then served in the U.S. Congress from 1980-1986. After leaving Congress, Evans was the chair of the Quality Grain Task Force, producing a report, Grain Quality: Positioning Ourselves for the Future, in 1987. Collection contains files from Evans' Congressional office in Washington, D.C., and includes correspondence with constituents, information on various local and national issues, newspaper clippings, and computer disks and tapes. Unprocessed.

FISHER, C. RAYMOND (1907- ). Papers, 1969-1974. .63 linear foot. MS-038. Six-term Republican representative to the Iowa House of Representatives. Raymond Fisher was also active in 4-H and the Farmers Home Administration, and was a recipient of a Master Farmer Award (1956). Collection contains correspondence and printed materials dealing with the Alcoholism Treatment Subcommittee, the merit system for state employees, and the Iowa Supreme Court Study Committee. Processed.

HANSON, FRED B. (1888-?). Papers, 1961-1970. .21 linear foot. RS 21/07/40. State representative. Fred B. Hanson was born in Inwood, Iowa, in 1888, the son of pioneer parents. He received his education at Lenox College and Iowa State University. Hanson was an extension director for Harrison County, Iowa; a project manager for Granger Homesteads; a school secretary; an agent with Farm Bureau Insurance; and secretary of the Mitchell County [Iowa] Fair. Beginning in 1961 he served four terms in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing Howard and Mitchell counties. Collection includes letters to editors of county papers and to constituents on public issues, and also contains copies of Hanson's legislative newsletters and press releases. Processed.

HAYS, WILLET M. (1859-1928). Papers, 1887-1929. .42 linear foot. RS 21/07/26. Agricultural scientist and public official. Willet Martin Hays was born on a farm in Hardin County, Iowa, attended Oscaloosa College and Drake University, and received a bachelor of agriculture degree (1885) and a master of agriculture degree (1896), both from Iowa State University. In addition to brief positions at Iowa State, North Dakota College, and the Prairie Farmer, he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, teaching there from 1888 to 1892 and from 1894 to 1904. Hays was a pioneer in the teaching and field study of agricultural economics, particularly in the area of farm management. He was also actively involved in agricultural education and established a unique system of agricultural high schools affiliated with the University of Minnesota. As Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under Secretary James Wilson from 1905 to 1913, Hays he tried to establish the Minnesota agricultural education system on the national level through the Dolliver-Davis and Page-Wilson bills. His ideas were partially implemented in 1914 with the Smith-Lever Act. After leaving the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1913, he acted as advisor to the Minister of Agriculture of Argentina for two years before retiring at the age of 56. The collection largely contains publications by Hays during his time at the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1888-1913. Experiment station bulletins, articles, and newspaper clippings deal with agricultural education, hybridizing of grains and forage crops, and farm management. A small group of letters documents reactions to Hays' governmental appointment. Correspondents are James "Tama Jim" Wilson, Edwin A. Jaggard, A. B. Crutchfield, and David Lubin. Processed.

IOWA PARTNERS OF THE AMERICAS. Records, 1965-1994. 28.99 linear feet. MS-034. The Partners of the Americas program was begun in 1964 to facilitate direct people-to-people contact between citizens of the United States and those of Latin America. Iowa Partners of the Americas was established the same year by Governor Harold E. Hughes. Iowa is partnered with the states of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The group's primary object is "to encourage and develop the means and spirit of friendly, knowledgeable, and effective cultural, commercial, and social interchange between the citizens of the partner states and among people of all the American states of this hemisphere with emphasis on the responsibilities and capabilities of the private sectors within each of the states." Collection includes committee files, correspondence, financial data, meeting minutes, project and trip reports, publications, and travel arrangements. Correspondents include Jan Beran, Philip A. Brown, William W. Brown, C. J. Gauger, Walter W. Goeppinger, James Graham, William Harben, Kenneth Miller, Edward W. O'Rourke, and Jeannette Westfall. Of special note are materials regarding the participation of Central College (Pella, Iowa) in the project, including the Yucatan Study Program offered at a Central College branch campus in Merida, Yucatan. 9.87 linear feet processed, 19.12 linear feet container listed.

KOPF, KENNETH (1904- ). Papers, 1926-1991. 7.98 linear feet. MS-256. Agronomist and geneticist. Kenneth Kopf received a B.S. in agronomy from Iowa State University in 1930 and a Ph.D. in genetics from Iowa State in 1952. He worked as a plant breeding supervisor from 1933-1944, then as a geneticist for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company from 1944-1949. Kopf worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Iraq after obtaining his Ph.D. He went on to serve as an advisor in the U.S. Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) in Korea (1954), Colombia (1960), Nigeria (1965), and Vietnam (1970). Collection includes correspondence, notes, maps, A.I.D. publications and reports, and travel guides. Individual issues of notable newspapers, dating back to the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II, are also included. The collection also contains photographs of the Iowa State University Library as it looked when Kopf worked there as a student during the 1920s. Processed.

LAVERTY, CHARLES (1916- ). Papers, 1969-1972. 2.6 linear feet. MS-428. Iowa state senator from 1969 to 1972. Charles Laverty attended Simpson College, then earned a B.S. in dairy science from Iowa State University in 1941. He was the owner of Laverty Elevator, Inc., and Laverty Sprayers, Inc., in Indianola, Iowa. He represented Marion, Monroe, and Warren counties in the State Senate. Collection includes correspondence, reports, and news clippings. Laverty was a member of the Chemical Technology Committee and Review Board and the Environmental Preservation Study Committee; many of the materials relate to these committees. Unprocessed.

MILLER, LEROY S. (1914- ). Papers, 1959-1970, n.d. 5.25 linear feet. MS-009. Iowa legislator from 1962 to 1970. Leroy Miller was born in 1914 on a farm near Clarinda, Iowa, the son of L. F. and Inez Stitt Miller. He operated a farm for thirteen years after graduation from Clarinda High School, then became a farm implement dealer in Shenandoah, Iowa. Miller continued to farm on a part-time basis while participating in numerous community activities. In 1966, he became operator of the Delmonico Hotel in Shenandoah. He began his first term in the Iowa state legislature in 1962 as Page County representative, serving for a total of eight years. Miller served as chair of the Transportation Committee, Roads and Highways Committee, and Subcommittee on Appropriations for Social Services. Collection includes correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, research material, and weekly news releases chiefly from his last six years in the legislature (1964-1970). The correspondence is arranged topically rather than chronologically. Research materials include data, legislative bills, and general information that Miller must have considered before sponsoring a bill, writing a speech, or taking a stand on an issue. The newspaper clippings include material sent to Miller by his colleagues or his constituents, or saved by his staff. Weekly news releases are summarizations of Miller's views printed in his constituents' newspapers concerning the state legislature, the legislative issues of the week, and his stands on those issues. The collection also includes materials relating to those committees for which Miller served as chair. Processed.

OLSEN, NILS ANDREAS (1886-1940). Papers, ca. 1919-1940. 0.93 linear feet. MS-006. U.S. Department of Agriculture official and insurance company executive. Nils A. Olsen was born in Herscher, Illinois, on August 31, 1886. He received a bachelor's degree from Luther College in 1907, did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in 1907-1908, and received a master's degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1909. He was an instructor in history and economics at Muhlenberg College and Harvard University until 1912, when he undertook the management of several farms. Olsen entered the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1919 as an assistant agricultural economist. He was with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics from 1925-1935, as assistant to the bureau chief (1925-1928) and as bureau chief (1928-1935). He later assumed the leadership of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York, where his duties included the management of the farm mortgage division. He died in Bronxville, New York, July 27, 1940. Collection includes correspondence and a diary kept by Olsen from 1925-1935, dealing with the affairs of the Department of Agriculture and the government. His writings reveal warm friendships with three Secretaries of Agriculture: William Jardine, Arthur Hyde, and especially Henry A. Wallace, whom Olsen had known for many years. Olsen had worked with Wallace's father, Henry C. Wallace, when the elder Wallace was Secretary of Agriculture (1921-1924) to create a foreign service for the Department of Agriculture. The service was established in 1930 after a long battle with the Department of Commerce. The battle involved Herbert Hoover and is probably the major reason for Olsen's intense dislike of Hoover. Olsen's disfavor was not partisan: important New Dealers such as Rexford Guy Tugwell and Henry Morgenthau, Jr., also drew his fire. Olsen's correspondence and diary refer to Thomas Cooper, Chester C. Davis, Jerome Frank, Herbert Hoover, Arthur M. Hyde, William Jardine, Julius Klein, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Charles McNary, George Peck, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry C. Taylor, Rexford Guy Tugwell, Henry A. Wallace, and Milburn L. Wilson. The papers are in part typewritten transcripts, with the location of originals unknown. Processed.

PARRY, CHARLES CHRISTOPHER (1823-1890). Papers, 1841-1943. 28 manuscript volumes and 1.8 linear feet. MS-290. Botanist and physician. Charles Christopher Parry was born in Admington, Gloucestershire, England, on August 28, 1823. When he was nine years old, his family moved from England to Washington County, New York. Parry earned an A.B. degree from Union College in 1842, then attended Columbia University as a graduate student, falling under the influence there of the botanist John Torrey. Earning an M.D. degree from Columbia in 1846, Parry settled in Davenport, Iowa, the same year and established a medical practice. Botanical studies rather than medicine proved to be his main interest, however. Parry served under David Dale Owen in 1848 in the geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. In 1849 he was appointed botanist to the United States-Mexican boundary survey and worked in this capacity for three years. For the rest of his life, Parry spent his summers in botanical expeditions in western states like Colorado, Utah, and California, on his own or as botanist to an organized survey. He was the first person to hold the position of botanist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spending the years 1869-1871 at the Smithsonian Institution. Parry published his botanical papers in a wide variety of scientific journals and newspapers. In 1853 he married Sarah M. Dalzell, who died in 1858. The next year he married Emily R. Preston, who survived him. Parry died in his home in Davenport on February 20, 1890. Parry's herbarium and many of his personal papers and books were purchased by Iowa State University in 1894. The papers include correspondence, notebooks, clippings, and miscellaneous papers. Many of the manuscripts and notebooks contain field notes from botanical expeditions, including notes on Santo Domingo, the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, and the Wasatch Mountains in the Utah Territory. There are two scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings--one dealing with the Mexican boundary surveys and the Santo Domingo Commission, the other containing clippings from the Chicago Evening Journal in 1863-1864. The collection also includes photocopies from the accession records of the Iowa State University Library listing Parry gifts to the library, L. H. Pammel's notes on Parry, and papers dealing with the cataloging of the Iowa State collection in 1942-1943. Correspondents include Rosa Smith Eigenmann, W. H. Emory, George Engelmann, Asa Gray, Edwin James, Albert Kellogg, D. D. Owen, S. B. Parish, Emily R. Parry, A. Randall, John Torrey, and Sereno Watson. The manuscript volumes were formerly classified as Spec Coll QK31/P248c, QK31/P248m, QK31/P248n, QK31/P248cm, QK31/P248i, QK31/P248cl, and F626/J3232L. Processed.

U.S. WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION. IOWA. IOWA CRAFT PROJECT: PRODUCTION AND SERVICE, EDUCATION, RECREATION, RESEARCH AND RECORDS, ART, MUSIC, WRITERS, HISTORICAL RECORDS. Scrapbooks, ca. 1939. 1.41 linear feet. MS-293. Collection consists of two scrapbooks documenting Work Projects Administration (WPA) projects in Iowa. They include carbon copies of correspondence and reports, photographs, and publications. Formerly classified as Spec Coll HD3890/I8/Un31i, v. 1 and v. 2. Processed.

U.S. WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION. IOWA. Photographs, 1935-1940. 4.2 linear feet. MS-260. Collection of 1,271 photographs of Work Projects Administration (WPA) projects in Iowa during the years 1935-1940. The collection is divided into two sections. The first is arranged by the five Iowa WPA districts. Within each district, photographs are arranged alphabetically by county. Within each county, rural projects are listed first, followed by those in specific towns. The second part of the collection is arranged by the type of project involved, for example, "Farm to Market Roads" and "Stadiums and Swimming Pools." Throughout the collection, the dates the pictures were taken and the project numbers, if known, are included. Of special note are photographs of a visit made by Eleanor Roosevelt to Des Moines, Iowa, on June 8, 1936. Her main purpose in visiting the city was to deliver a commencement address at Drake University, but part of her day was devoted to viewing WPA project sites. These sites included a sewing room, a riverfront improvement project, and the Negro Community Center at 15th and Crocker. The photographs were originally housed in scrapbooks located in the General Collection. Processed.

WALLACE, HENRY A. (1888-1965). Papers, 1910-1988. 2.15 linear feet. RS 21/07/05. Farm editor, corn breeder, businessman, and public official. Henry A. Wallace was born on a farm near Orient, Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State University in 1910. His grandfather Henry Wallace founded and edited Wallaces' Farmer, a prestigious Iowa farming journal; his father Henry C. Wallace was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1921-1924. Henry A. Wallace edited Wallaces' Farmer from 1921 to 1933. He founded the Hi-Bred Corn Company (today Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.) in 1926. Wallace was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1933-1940), Vice President (1941-1945), and Secretary of Commerce (1945-1946). He was the 1948 presidential candidate on the Progressive Party ticket. Collection includes biographical material, newspaper clippings, correspondence, addresses, photographs, interviews, reminiscences, bibliography, and publications. Of special interest is a Federal Bureau of Investigation file on Wallace from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Copies of transcripts of interviews with Wallace in 1950-1951 by the Oral History Research Office of Columbia University give his reminiscences of the period 1888-1934. A June 1960 interview was done at the 50th anniversary reunion of the class of 1910. The collection also includes discussion papers from a workshop, "Henry A. Wallace, Hybrid Corn and the Great American Agricultural Revolution," held in 1987 at Iowa State. Related materials in the Iowa State University Library include Henry A. Wallace Papers at the University of Iowa Libraries (E748.W23 A2x 1977, microfilm) and The Wallace Papers: An Index to the Microfilm Editions of the Henry A. Wallace Papers (Iowa City: University of Iowa Libraries, 1975), Z6616.W239 R63, Microforms and General Collection. Processed.

WILSON, JAMES "TAMA JIM" (1835-1920). Papers, 1887-1986. 5.8 linear feet. RS 09/01/11. Legislator, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and professor of agriculture. James Wilson was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. His family emigrated to the United States in 1851, settling in Connecticut, but they moved to a farm near Traer in Tama County, Iowa, in 1855. During his early years in Iowa, Wilson attended Grinnell College, began farming, married Esther Wilbur in 1863, and edited the Traer Star-Clipper. He was elected to the Iowa legislature, then to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In Congress he served on the Committee on Agriculture and the Rules Committee. He acquired the nickname "Tama Jim" to distinguish him from Senator James Falconer Wilson ("Jefferson Jim"), also from Iowa. After his Congressional career, Tama Jim returned to farming and wrote for the Iowa Homestead and other farm journals. In 1891 he was appointed professor of agriculture and director of the Experiment Station at Iowa State University, where he placed agricultural instruction on a scientific and practical basis. During his six years at Iowa State he established a very close relationship with George Washington Carver, often discussing the possibility of applying the principles of plant genetics to improving livestock. From 1897 to 1913 he served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. During his tenure the department extended its activities, established experiment stations in all parts of the United States, inaugurated farm demonstration work in the South, began cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics, and sent experts and scientists all over the world to gather information for the promotion of agriculture. After retirement he returned to Tama County and was appointed to report on agricultural conditions in Great Britain, together with his longtime friend "Uncle" Henry Wallace. Collection contains biographical material, news clippings, letter press books, correspondence, addresses, articles, reports, transcripts of interviews, scrapbooks, photographs, a typescript copy of the 1913 report "Agricultural Conditions in Great Britain and Ireland," and genealogical material. Correspondents include Henry Wallace, Henry C. Wallace, Seaman A. Knapp, Raymond A. Pearson, L. H. Pammel, Charles E. Friley, and G. H. Hicks. Processed.