Iowa citizens and historians have been pushing back against the decision to close the Iowa City archives. The move to close the public archives was announced on June 17, 2025, with budgetary issues being cited as the reason to do away with the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City nearly 169 years after its founding.
Senate File 2293 removes the legal requirement for the state of Iowa to fund a public research center in Iowa City. “I’m not too big on archival stuff, but I think they should at least keep it open for the historical record,” said Isabelle Engelhardt, criminal justice. “I find it a little weird. If it’s already a law, why can’t they just follow the law?”
Nearly all lobbyists listed on the official Iowa legislature website have declared themselves as against Senate File 2293, with only two of the 12 lobbyists listed in themselves as undecided. In addition, multiple online petitions calling for the center to be kept open have been signed by thousands of Iowans with multiple protests taking place in support of the public archives staying open.
One of the many advocacy groups opposing the closure, the Save Iowa History Coalition, has collected over 8,000 signatures on their petition calling for the state to “Guarantee accessibility to the physical records of Iowa’s history at the State Historical Society of Iowa libraries and archives” and to “Make the budget and decision-making process for the DAS and SHSI more transparent and allow for public input into plans for the reorganization, dispersion, or digitization of the SHSI research collection.”
“It definitely seems like the side supporting the research center has been more vocal from what I’ve seen,” said Sarah Young, library resources specialist and Kirkwood’s resident archivist.
“One of the major benefits of having a research center like that in Iowa City is that it gives people from this part of the state fairly easy access to firsthand experience working with documents. That can be especially important to high school and college students,” she said.
Young expressed her concern at the lack of transparency from the state government. “When a decision like this is made that impacts certain constituencies, I think it would be best if they tried to reach out to stakeholders and understand concerns before decisions are made,” she said.
“I just hope that whatever the final outcome is, it’s made with respect to the people who will be impacted and to the history contained in that repository,” said Young. “I want our government to consider the important role of our history in understanding who we are as Iowans.”
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