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150 years in 20 months
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Department of History faculty members, graduate students
instrumental in creation of new history of Iowa State University.
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It has been 65 years since the last history of Iowa State University
was published.
So how did a group of authors, including several faculty and graduate
students from the Department of History, publish a 365-page new history
of the university in just 20 months?
"We had a group advisory committee that I think was very crucial
in the publishing of this book," said Dorothy Schwieder, emeritus
professor of history and co-editor of the new history book, Traditions
and Transformations. "That committee made a number of important
decisions on the number of chapters that should be included, the topics
that should be covered and the authors of those chapters."
Still Schwieder and her merry band of co-authors weren't finalized until
Jan. 2, 2005. The final, edited copy went to the publishers in August
2006.
"The whole process went pretty well for a book essentially written by
a committee," said Pam Riney-Kehrberg, professor of history.
Riney-Kehrberg and Schwieder were just two of the Department of History
authors on the project. Others included Charles Dobbs, professor and department
chair; Amy Bix, associate professor; and graduate students Jenny Barker-Devine
and Joe Anderson. Other chapters were written by other current and past
Iowa State employees.
Each was responsible for a specific chapter. And in an interview with
the Department of History authors, they each said the others' tasks were
both more daunting and more interesting.
"I wish we could have given Jenny more space in the book," Riney-Kehrberg
said. "I found her stories very interesting."
Barker-Devine wrote on Iowa State's student life and included many different
vignettes about life on campus. She researched her portion of the book
through alumni surveys and copies of Iowa State's student newspapers.
"There was so much material that I had to leave many things out," she
said.
One vignette that Schwieder was forced to cut from the final version of
the book was the implosion of the Towers just a couple of years ago.
"We made the decision to cut off the history in 2000 so we left the
Towers implosion and other stories to a later book," she said.
Bix says her research wasn't nearly as exciting as the other authors.
She was charged with chronicling faculty development on campus.
"I went through 50 years of Faculty Council minutes," she said.
"I was very jealous of Jenny and her topics."
In addition to serving as a co-editor on the project along with former
Iowa State University Press director Gretchen Van Houten, Schwieder wrote
on the Hilton and Friley years. Dobbs was responsible for the Eaton and
Jischke years.
Riney-Kehrberg was faced with the task of documenting the history of the
university from its founding to World War II. She says she "reinterpreted"
the previous history written in 1942.
"I had to go from 400 pages to 40 and include many of the items that
weren't included in that book including gender and student life – basically
filling in what wasn't important 65 years ago," she said.
Since he previously worked in the President's Office, Dobbs was an obvious
choice to look at the Jischke years. An added bonus for Dobbs was learning
more about the Eaton era on campus.
"I didn't know much about President Eaton," Dobbs said. "I
really came away from this project liking him a lot."
Learning more about Iowa State and its history was something each author
gained from this experience.
"I've only been on campus for seven years," Riney-Kehrberg said.
"I know a whole lot more about this history of Iowa State than I
did before."
Traditions and Transformations is available through the University
Bookstore and the ISU Alumni Association.
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From the left, Amy Bix, Charles Dobbs, Jenny Barker-Devine,
Dorothy Schwieder and Pamela Riney-Kehrberg.
Around LAS
April 9-22, 2007
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