History

Iowa History Center

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We are committed to preserving and promoting the state’s history and encouraging a public conversation about the story of Iowa. Our mission is to advance the understanding and appreciation of Iowa history among the state’s students, scholars and general public. Besides regularly teaching Iowa history, we have established a number of programs designed to heighten public awareness and interest in Iowa history, expand educational opportunities in Iowa history, and make this history more widely available. Current programs include:

  • Iowa History Speaker Series is now in its fourth season. The programs are held in both Indianola and Des Moines. Past speakers have included nationally acclaimed authors Mildred Kalish, William Taubman, Steven Biel, Nick Reding, editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy, and Governor Robert Ray. These events draw 1,000 to 1,500 people annually.
  • Field Trip Grant Program assists local schools in making Iowa history more accessible to their students by sending K-9 school children on Iowa history-oriented field trips.
  • Iowa History Internship Program offers hands-on experience for Simpson students in public history at local institutions such as Living History Farms, the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Fort Des Moines Museum, Terrace Hill, and the Iowa Department for the Blind.
  • Annual Award for the Outstanding Master’s Thesis in Iowa History encourages graduate study in the field. Our first two award winners were Sara Egge of Iowa State University and Pam Stek of the University of Iowa.
  • Iowa and the Midwest Experience, a book series created through the Center’s partnership with the University of Iowa Press, provides a publishing outlet for Iowa history. The series currently has three authors under contract and is considering a number of other manuscripts. For a description of the series, see the University of Iowa Press webpage, http://www.uiowapress.org/search/browse-series/index.html.

Planned programs include:

  • Iowa Oral History Project will document the stories of important Iowans. Simpson students will conduct the interviews, which will be recorded, transcribed, and available to the public.
  • Online Iowa History Course under consideration to make Iowa history available statewide.

  

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 Upcoming Events - Spring 2011
February 24, 2011 Peace Through Corn, a two-person play portraying the amazing relationship between Iowa farmer Roswell Garst and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
7 p.m., Lekberg Hall, Simpson College

March 8, 2011
Homemaker, author, radio personality, newspaper columnist, and Simpson alumna Evelyn Birkby will discuss her eventful life
4:30-6 p.m., Simpson College's West Des Moines Campus, Century Building II, 1415 28th St., West Des Moines

April 11, 2011
Authors Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas will discuss their book, Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and Whait it Means for America
7 p.m., Des Moines Public Library, 1000 Grand Ave., Des Moines

  
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  Past projects and events of the Iowa History Center.

 

These events are made possible in part by Creating Great Places, The Des Moines Public Library, and Humanities Iowa. They are free and open to the public.
For more information on the Iowa History center, call 515-961-1528 or 515-961-1369, or contact Bill Friedricks at bill.friedricks@simpson.edu

 

 

 

Last Updated: 11/18/11