Special Collections Department - Resources - History Day Topics
Suggested Topics for 2012-2013 NHD Theme: TURNING POINTS IN HISTORY: People, Ideas, Events
These topics use resources available in the Special Collections Department at Iowa State University Library. Links are provided to online finding aids (where available) for collection descriptions and listings. For additional information about resources available for these and other topics, please contact the Special Collections Department. For more detailed information about this year's topic, please visit the National History Day website.
Atomic Energy/Manhattan Project:
- Frank H. Spedding Papers, RS 17/1/11
- Harley A. Wilhelm Papers, RS 17/1/53
- Ames Laboratory Oral History Collection, RS 17/1/5
4-H and Iowa State University Extension
- Perry G. Holden Papers, RS 16/3/11
- Ralph Kenneth Bliss Papers, RS 16/3/13
- Harold M. Nichols Papers, RS 16/3/51
- Martin L. Mosher Papers, RS 16/3/55
- Paul C. Taff Papers, RS 16/3/56
- Kemper A. Kirkpatrick Papers, RS 16/3/58
- Jessie Field Shambaugh Collection, RS 16/3/60
- Gerald Edward Parsons Papers, RS 16/3/63
- James F. Kearns Papers, RS 16/3/66
- Iowa State University, 4-H Youth Development Records, RS 16/3/4
Hybrid corn:
- George M. Allee Papers, MS 136
- Garst and Thomas Hybrid Corn Company Records, MS 173 (hybrid seed company founded by Roswell Garst)
- Garst Family Papers, MS 579 (In 1959 Khrushchev Khrushchev took up their invitation and visited the Garsts to see their farming operations, which catapulted Iowa and the Garsts onto the international agricultural scene)
- Iowa Crop Improvement Association Records, RS 9/9/3
- John Crosby Eldredge Papers, RS 9/9/51
- Joe L. (Joseph Lee) Robinson Papers, RS 9/9/57
- Perry G. Holden Papers, RS 16/3/11
- Raymond F. Baker Papers, RS 21/7/8
- Henry A. Wallace Collection, RS 21/7/5
- Ernest W. Lindstrom Papers, RS 9/15/11
- Irving E. Melhus Papers, RS 13/5/14
- Jules Cool Cunningham Papers, RS 9/16/53
- R. Howard Porter Papers, RS 9/19/11
Khrushchev visits Iowa
- Garst Family Papers, MS 579 (In 1959 Khrushchev Khrushchev took up their invitation and visited the Garsts to see their farming operations, which catapulted Iowa and the Garsts onto the international agricultural scene)
- Khrushchev Committee 50th Anniversary Event Records, MS 615
- John Chrystal Papers, MS 422
Hog cholera eradication
- Fort Dodge Laboratories Records, MS 19 (developed hog cholera serum)
- Hog Cholera Pamphlets and Reprints Collection, MS 389
- Richard Searl Papers, MS 167
- Neal Black Papers, MS 78
- Marion Dorset Papers, MS 32
New Deal
- United States. Work Projects Administration (Iowa). Professional and Service Division Scrapbooks, MS 293
- United States Works Progress Administration (Iowa) Special Reports and Narratives of Projects, MS 409
- Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.). Iowa Collection, MS 188 (documents New Deal work relief projects done under the CCC in Iowa)
- Howard C. Johnson Papers, MS 505
- Henry A. Wallace Collection, RS 21/7/5
Women’s Suffrage
Other Topics of Interest:
- Garst Company Records, MS 672 (first to recognize the importance of fertilizers and farm chemicals for increased crop yields, discovered the potential for corn byproducts, and in later years, the company was quick to adopt soil conservation farming practice, and other innovative farming practices)
- American School of Wildlife Protection Collection, MS 133 (One of the first of its kind in the United States, the school's purpose was to promote conservation values among the public)
- John Vincent Atanasoff Papers, RS 13/20/51 (Inventor of the first digital computer)
- Hugh Hammond Bennett Papers, MS 164 (father of soil conservation)
- Alexander Lippisch (aeronautical engineer, inventor of the delta wing)
- Norman E. Borlaugh (father of the Green Revolution, developed high-yield crop varieties)
- Temple Grandin Papers, MS 344 (designs humane livestock handling facilities)
- Merle Hansen Papers, MS 595 (social activist for rural issues, particularly the family farm and the 1980s farm crisis)
- James Raley Howard Papers, MS 157 (one of the founders and first president of both the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the American Farm Bureau Federation)
- Iowa-Yucatan Partners of the Americas Records, MS 34 (national organization was established in the 1960s to establish a direct people-to-people contact between North and South America)
- Frederic Leopold Papers, MS 113 (when wood ducks were on the brink of extinction, designed wood duck houses to aid their return)
- Anson Marston Papers, RS 11/1/11 (early researcher in modern road construction and established the Iowa State Highway Commission, today it is known as the Iowa Department of Transportation)
- Wesley F. Buchele Papers, RS 9/7/52 (invented the round hay bale, worked on farm safety issues)
- Orland Russel Sweeney Papers, RS 11/4/14 (chemical engineer developed uses for agricultural by-products)
- William P. Switzer Papers, RS 14/3/51 (invented vaccines to control atrophic rhinitis in hogs and kennel cough in dogs)
- Iowa State University Department of Military Science Curtiss-Wright Engineering Cadettes Program Records, RS 13/16/4 (engineering program for women during World War II)
- World War II Ration Memorabilia Collection, MS 388
Previous Year's Topics
"Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History" (2011-2012)
"Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences" (2010-2011)
"Innovation in History: Impact and Change" (2009-2010)
"The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies" (2008-2009)
"Conflict & Compromise in History" (2007-2008)
"Triumph and Tragedy in History" (2006-2007)
"Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events" (2005-2006)