6. Descriptions of the Collections


In addition to university publications and the agricultural press, agricultural organizations and
agribusiness played a key role in disseminating agricultural information. Groups like the Iowa Farm
Bureau, the Iowa Grange, the Iowa Agricultural Society (which was instrumental in founding Iowa State's
forerunner, the Iowa Agricultural College (IAC) in 1859), the Iowa State and County Fairs Association,
and the Iowa Beef Producers Association published information aimed at improving farmers' agricultural
productivity and quality of life. Commercial agricultural interests provided this service as well. Dorr's,
who produced the Dorr's Iowa Seeds Catalog (1881-1886) is a premier example of a publication that
documents the range of agricultural supplies that were available over one hundred years ago.

It is this published record that Iowa State University Library seeks to identify and preserve for future
scholars interested in Iowa and U.S. agriculture and rural life. An extensive collection on the history of
Iowa agriculture is held by the Parks Library at Iowa State University including Iowa State Department of
Agriculture publications such as its Bulletin (1907-1949) and its Annual Iowa Yearbook of Agriculture
(1900-1951). Also included are prominent statewide periodicals like the Official Proceedings of the
Iowa State Grange (1874-1977). Another group of important materials in need of preservation are
Extension publications, of which Parks Library has over 100 individual cataloged series. The Library
also contains extensive holdings of serials relating to research conducted in agricultural engineering,
home economics, and animal and plant sciences. These titles all contain irreplaceable historical
information about the story of agriculture in Iowa, and their identification and preservation is a challenge
and a responsibility to future generations.

Over the course of the project, Iowa State University Library, in cooperation with other libraries in the
state, will develop a comprehensive bibliography of published materials important to the study of
agriculture and rural life in Iowa and the Midwest. The project will employ a five-person scholarly
review panel to rank titles according to their priority as research resources for humanities studies, and
target the most important 25% of a universe of approximately 12,000 volumes to be preserved in a
subsequent project. Details of the Library's project staffing and costs are found in Section 5.6 of the
proposal's Plan of Work.


6.7 MINNESOTA


The history of agriculture and rural life define the history of Minnesota. Until about 1920, Minnesota's
population was primarily rural and depended directly on agriculture. Even today, agriculture remains
Minnesota's largest industry. The economic growth of early Minnesota was related closely to exploitation
of its natural resources: soils, timber, and iron ore. Farming, lumbering, and mining stimulated the
growth of such ancillary activities as railroads, processing of agricultural products and natural resources,
and services. The role of agriculture in the early state economy is explored in materials published early
in this century such as Early Economic Conditions and the Development of Agriculture in Minnesota
(1915) by Edward V.D. Robinson.

Minnesota east of the Mississippi River was part of the original Northwest Territory. West of the
Mississippi River, Minnesota was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Minnesota became a territory in 1849
with territorial boundaries reaching as far west as the Upper Missouri River, but most of its 4,000 white
settlers were located in the Fort Snelling area in the eastern part of the territory. Until the mid-1800s, two
major Indian tribes occupied what is now Minnesota: the Ojibwas (Chippewa) in the north and east and
the Sioux (Dakota) in the south and west. Though primarily hunter-gathers, Native Americans did some
farming in the Mississippi River Valley and harvested wild rice in the northern regions for generations.

The first permanent U.S. settlement at Fort Snelling was established in 1819. When Minnesota became a
state in 1858, its boundaries were cut back from the Missouri River to the Red River. Settlement was slow