Historical Information and Essays

The University Archives is a collection of about 4,500 linear feet of historically valuable documentary material relating to the University of Northern Iowa. The material, ranging from the 1870s through the current date, attempts to document all facets of life in the UNI community. Included in this collection are catalogues, yearbooks, student newspapers, budgets, financial reports, and student magazines and anthologies. Many less familiar reports, series, pamphlets, and other publications are also in the Archives. In addition, there are about 200,000 photographs, which provide images of the people, activities, and physical landscapes of the UNI community. There are also correspondence and subject files from significant people, committees, offices, and organizations on campus. A limited number of archival series are included in OneSearch! with the location designation SPEC COLL A. Researchers should visit Special Collections to get a complete picture of Archives holdings. The University Archives Classification Schedule lists all record series in the Archives. There are detailed finding aids or inventories for some series. If the finding aid exists as a Web document, there is a live link from the series name to the finding aid. Entries denoted with the letters "FA" appearing after the series name are not yet online. These finding aids are located in Special Collections, Office 342.

The following pages are historical information and essays compiled and written by SC&UA staff and students over the years. Please note that this information is not always regularly updated, and they are not intended to be comprehensive. Patrons are encouraged to note the date the content was updated at the bottom of each page. Please also note that some of the content presented in these historical information pages and essays is subjective in tone. Patrons are always welcome to visit SC&UA or contact SC&UA staff at libarchives@uni.edu about consulting sources directly.

Illustrated Historical Essays


For further historical information try...

  • IndexUNI, An index to publications by and about UNI.
  • "Learning About UNI's Past", a web display featuring many important historical sources of information about UNI.
  • Search SC&UA website content, including historical essays, from the homepage. Just click on "SC&UA Sites" tab on the main search function.
  • Search or browse our finding aids, detailed guides that describe the contents of our archival collections, in ArchivesSpace.