Ever wondered why the college is named “Kirkwood”? Or what nursing students wore in the 1970s? Or why don’t we have a football team? The College Archives have the answer!
An archive is a kind of organization that focuses on preserving important historical documents. Depending on the scope of an archives’ collecting mission, these can be related to a business, a historical moment or an important person and can include personal writing, newspapers, photographs, meeting minutes and even websites.
The Kirkwood Community College Archives’ mission is to collect and preserve items related to the history of the college from its founding in 1966 through the present and make these materials accessible to those who want to use them. Our collection includes items related to the administration of the college such as board minutes, publications such as The Communique newspaper and The Cedar Valley Divide and many photographs. The Archives collects items in both physical (e.g. paper documents and printed photos) and digital (e.g. PDF and JPEG) formats.
The Archives is managed by the Library Resources Specialist with help from other library staff. We help students, alumni, staff, faculty and anyone with an interest in Kirkwood’s history by answering questions about the history of the college, providing copies of documents, photos and videos and gathering items for researchers to examine in person.
History is not just something that has happened in the past. It’s something that we create every day at Kirkwood! To make sure that this history is preserved, the Archives collects donated items that illustrate current life at Kirkwood. Do you have photos, posters or other items related to events on campus or student organizations? Let us know!
If you are ever interested in learning more about Kirkwood’s history or donating items to the Archives, you can email the Archives at archives@kirkwood.edu. A small collection of photos and other historical documents can be viewed online through the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections at https://tinyurl.com/2mct5wft. More information can be found at https://guides.kirkwood.edu/archives.
Categories: Feature, Library Update
