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Suggested National History Day Project Topics
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.
General Topics - Iowa State University
- Jack Trice (Iowa State's first African-American athlete; he died as
a result of injuries sustained in his first varsity football game. See
RS 21/7/23)
- George Washington Carver (First African-American student and faculty
member at Iowa State; later joined the faculty at Tuskegee Institute.
See
RS 21/7/2 and
online exhibit)
- Henry A. Wallace (Iowa State alumnus; served as U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture (1933-1940) and Vice-President (1941-1945) under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. See
RS 21/7/5)
- Carrie Chapman Catt (Iowa State alumna, woman suffrage leader, and
disarmament activist. See
RS 21/7/3)
- Roswell Garst (Iowa State alumnus; of particular interest are Garst &
Company's trade ties to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev's 1959 visit to the Garst farm in Coon Rapids,
Iowa. See
RS 21/7/12 Roswell Garst Papers,
MS 579 Garst Family
Papers and Photographs, and related collections)
- Kate Shelley (In 1881, she traveled on foot through a storm,
crawling across a railroad bridge over Des Moines River, to warn the
railroad station that a bridge had collapsed and the express train
should be stopped. See
MS 684)
- Rural life and agriculture in Iowa (See
subject guide for
agricultural collections)
- Women in science and engineering (See
website for the Archives of
Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) in the Special Collections
Department)
- Civil War (See
subject guide for Civil War related collections)
Topics for 2007-2008 NHD Theme: Conflict
& Compromise in History
Oleomargarine Controversy
(1940s)
During World War II, Iowa State College (now University) scholars published a pamphlet recommending the use of oleomargarine during wartime. The Iowa dairy industry pressured the college to revise the pamphlet, and several faculty members resigned from the college in protest.
- Oleomargarine Controversy Records, RS 6/3/11 box 6-7
- Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station Records,
RS 9/2/17
- Theodore Schultz Papers, RS 13/9/14
- Iowa State Dairy Association Records, MS 65
September 29th Movement
Controversy over the renaming of Old Botany to Catt Hall
(in honor of Carrie Chapman Catt) sparked by the charge that Catt was
racist.
- September 29th Movement Records, RS 22/3/0/1
- "Catt Hall Review Committee Final Report,"
LD2543 I172x
1998 (in Special Collections, Archives books)
- Carrie Chapman Catt Hall Review Committee Records, RS 22/1/8
Cow War
(Eastern Iowa, 1931)
Farmers revolt against testing of cows for
tuberculosis
- George J. Ormsby Papers, MS 109
Evolution/Creation Debate
Could examine a specific controversy such as
the 1980s Livermore (California) School District dispute about the
teaching of creationism and evolution
- Evolution/Creation Archive, MS 181
- Other evolution/creation related collections
Women Scientists at the National Institutes of Health
Fann Harding was the founding President (1970) of the NIH Organization for Women (now known as SHER,
Self Help for Equal Rights). In the early 1970s she filed the first
sex discrimination complaint against the National Institutes of
Health, and won her case in 1974.
- Fann Harding Papers, MS 320
- Rosalind Marimont Papers, MS 251
Vietnam Era Protests at Iowa State University
- Political demonstrations, RS 00/12
War as Conflict (World War II)
- Jack Shelley's papers from his work as a war correspondent in Europe and the Pacific,
RS 13/13/55
War as Conflict (Civil War)
Woman Suffrage Movement
Activism for Fair Prices for Farmers
- American Agriculture Movement (1970s-80s),
MS 463
- Farmers Holiday Movement (1930s),
MS 461
- National Farmers Organization (1950s-1970s),
MS 481
Activism to Protect Iowa Farmland
- Agricultural Property Rights Association (opposition to construction of oil pipeline in eastern Iowa, 1970s),
MS 415
- Farm Land Preservation Association (farmers protest against construction of interstate (I-380) between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo),
MS 108
- Farmers Transmission Line Suits (efforts to prevent construction of high-voltage transmission lines),
MS 89
- And others (see
subject guide for agriculture-related collections)
Topics for Previous Years' Themes
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