Iowa History 101 Program

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Iowa History 101 Series
Upcoming Programs
Past History 101 Programs

Iowa History 101 Series

Join the State Historical Society of Iowa for a 60-minute online learning series that focuses on the past lives of Iowans. The Iowa History 101 webinars share Iowa stories and the history of the state through a cultural history lens on the second Thursdays of each month. Register for an upcoming program or watch a recorded presentation. Registration is required for each event.

Upcoming Programs

List of Upcoming Iowa History 101 Programs
Date	Program Title (Click the link to register)	Presenter
May 14, 2026	Miracle of The Music Man: Meredith Willson’s Iowa Roots and Broadway Triumph	Mark Cabaniss
June 11, 2026	Hoyt Sherman: Venturing Into The Unknown	Robert Warren
July 9, 2026	The American Revolution and Iowa Connections	Mike Rowley
August 13, 2026	To Be Announced	--
September 10, 2026	Christian Petersen Before Iowa State: An Artistic Journey to Campus Sculptor	Allison Sheridan

Past History 101 Programs

Explore our video series of past History 101 programs at the State Historical Society of Iowa on the Iowa History YouTube.

History 101
Recording Title
100 years of Donna Reed
"A Colorful and Impressive Spectacle": Nine Decades of Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa
A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era - The Life and Diary of Mary Ann Mosher Briggs
A Grand Army of Scholars: GAR Educational Reform and Mason City's Memorial University
A History of the Iowa Farm
A Prairie Faith: The Religious Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ada Hayden: Botanist, Educator, and Preservationist
Adolescent Health, Mortality and Mortuary Treatment at Dubuque’s Cemetery
Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, and Anti-Fashion Icon
American Indian Resistance to American Settler Colonialism in the Midwest
An Overview of Iowa Counties
Arabs in Fort Dodge, Iowa: the Habhabs and the Making of an American Family
Automobiles: The History of Iowans Taking to the Road
Back to School: History of Iowa's Schools
Baseball History in Iowa
Bert and Lou: The Story of the Herbert Hoover Family
Bread for my Enemies: The Friendship Train in Iowa
Bringing Forth the Vision of Strong-Minded Women at the Iowa Women's Archives
Broadlawns: A Century of Caring for Iowans
Bullets, Booze, and a Noose: A Sioux County Prohibition Story
Buxton, Iowa: The Black Utopia: To view the recording, please contact museum.education@iowa.gov.
Camping While Black: African American Experiences in Iowa Summer Camps, 1925-1950
Capitalist Pigs: Pigs, Pork, and Power in America
Case Studies in Personal Archaeology - Burials, Cemeteries, and Family Records
Chinese Pioneers in Iowa: Immigration, Laundry, and Resistance to Exclusion in the Nineteenth Century
Connecting to the Authentic: The State Historical Society of Iowa's Historic Sites
Corn Farming in Iowa
David W. Kilbourne: The Creation of an Iowa Anti-Mormon
Decolonizing Seeds to Revitalize Lifeways
Defending the Union Cause: Iowa Women's Civil War and Post-War Contributions
Emancipation Celebrations: The Historical Context for Juneteenth
Emir Abd el-Kader’s Life, Legacy and Connection to Elkader, Iowa
Every Farm an Airfield: The Promise of Agricultural Aviation in the Post-World War II Midwest
Forever Free: Rediscovering Heroes, Heroines & Helpers on Central Iowa's Underground Railroad
Fort Madison in Pre-Statehood Iowa
From Coal Palace to Closing the Plant: Coal and Community on the Lower-Des Moines River
From Relish Trays to Old Fashioneds: Sampling Iowa Supper Clubs
George Washington Carver in Iowa
German Freemasons on the Frontier: Fraternal Lodge No. 221 in Davenport, Iowa
Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines
Governor at War: A Critical Assessment of Gov. Samuel Kirkwood's Wartime Response
Gwendolyn Wilson Fowler: A Woman on Distinction
History of the Iowa Farm
Hollywood & Iowa: "It's A Wonderful Life"
Hopping Freights and Harvesting Grain with Hobos in Iowa, 1870s-1910
"I Felt if Things Didn't Change, the World Would Come to an End": Black Iowa Women's Activism During the Civil Rights Era, 1945-1965
Immigration to Iowa
Inkpaduta in Iowa: Dakota Decline, Dispossession and Erasure
Intro to Resources at the State Historical Society of Iowa's Research Center
"Invading Vacationland for Christ": Postwar Era Summer Camps in Iowa
Iowa and the Great War
Iowa and the Presidency
Iowa and the Equal Rights Amendment
Iowa Brewing: A Complicated History
Iowa City and Des Moines: A Tale of Two Capitol Buildings
Iowa City's Charles Wood Irish and the Dakota Territory Railroad Survey of 1879-81
Iowa in the Jazz Age
Iowa's African American Civil War Heritage
Iowa's Black Migration
Iowa's Boomtime: Prairie Chickens and the Replacement of Grass with Corn
Iowa’s Borders: Evolution and Controversy
Iowa's County Fairs
Iowa's First Japanese Garden
Iowa's Latinas/os: Forging Latinidad from Field to Campus
Iowa's Native Nations
Iowa History 101: Iowa's Naturalists: B.O. Wolden and Conservation in the Aldo Leopold Era
Iowa's Newest National Historic Landmark: The Surf Ballroom and its place in the themes of American history
Iowans & Bicycling
Iowa State Fair: An Iowa Tradition
Irish Iowa: The History of Pioneers and Progressives on the Prairie
Last Days in Vietnam, First Days in Iowa
Letters from the Farmhouse: How Rural Midwestern Women Created Community Through Media During World War II
Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland
A Menace to the Morals of the Institution: Women in Wartime and the 1918 Flu Epidemic at Iowa State College
Middle Americas: How Iowans (Almost) Built the Nicaraguan Canal
Movies & Film: Iowa's Starring Role in Hollywood
Muslims of the Heartland
National History Day in Iowa, 2024
National History Day in Iowa, 2025
On the Court: The History of Iowa High School Girls' Basketball
Portrait of a Steamboat Town: Sioux City, 1868 to 1873
Portrait of Glenn Miller
Prairie Fires: Urban Rebellions in the Midwest
Printing and Performing Citizenship: Black Activist Cultures in Iowa
Prohibition and Temperance in Iowa History
"Protector of the Poor": Iowa's Poor Farms and Midwestern Social Welfare
Quality Seeds to feed the World: 130 Years of Seed Testing, Research and Outreach
Quilts and the New Deal
Red Earth Nation: A History of the Meskwaki Settlement
Redlining in Iowa
Robert T. Smith's Search for World War II Servicemen Lost in the South Pacific
Rural Free Delivery, Parcel Post and Responses to Mail Order Commerce in Iowa, 1897-1915
Sand and Silence: The Art of Andrew Clemens of McGregor, Iowa
Save Us From the Ordinary: Five Decades of Iowa's Music Counterculture
Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure
Seeking Equality: Stories of Black Iowans, 1839 and Beyond
"Sincere but Misguided and Dangerous": Professor George Herron at Iowa College
Soldier Mob in Keokuk: Violence Against the Press During American Civil War
"Spine of Steel": The Life and Times of Mamie Doud-Eisenhower
Sports for the Liberal Arts: Reimagining Iowa's Small Colleges, 1921-1939
Stories from the "Iowa's People & Places" Exhibit
Story Behind Frank Lloyd Wright's First Usonian House in Iowa: The Walter House
Tales of the Iowa Territory
The Annals of Iowa: 158 years of History by, for, and about Iowans
The Deep History of Coal Mining in Madrid, Iowa
The Education and Training of Seven African American U.S. Army Officers
The Fullest Rights in Iowa: Emma Coger and the Desegregation of Steam Travel
The Hollander Fires and the Black Hand: A Clash of Cultures
The Industrialization and Americanization of Midwesterners' Diets
The Inspiring Story of the Iowa Chemist Who Saved the Manhattan Project
The Iowa National Guard in the Spanish-American War 1898-1899
The Modernization of Major College Football Stadia in the State of Iowa
The Myth and Realities of Country Lawyers in Iowa and the Midwest
The Nature of Iowa: Considering the Environment in State History
The Precinct Caucuses: Iowa's Role in the Presidential Nomination Process
The Progressive Influence of Iowa's Churches in the Late Twentieth Century
The Poison Garden
The Story of the World Food Prize Foundation
The Tractor Wars in Iowa
The Tri-State's Ballrooms and Bands
This American House: Frank Lloyd Wright's Meier House and the American System-Built Homes
Tom Harkin, Jesse Jackson, and Iowa's Left Wing Politics of the 1980s
Tomfoolery and Tuberculosis: Adolescent Health, Mortality, and Mortuary Treatment at Dubuque’s Third Street Cemetery
Uncommon Ground: Grant Wood and Russell Lee’s Divergent View on Iowa
Understanding the History of Gender in Iowa History
"We Came Home Together": Black Civil War Veterans and Community Building in Iowa
"We Learned to do the Things That Rural Women Did": Extension Homemakers Clubs in Iowa, 1920-1960
When a Dream Dies: Agriculture, Iowa and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s
Winter Holidays: How Iowans Celebrate
Women's Suffrage: Iowans' Role Statewide and Nationally
World War II from Iowa's Warfront

Iowa History 101 Program

On this page...

Iowa History 101 Series

Upcoming Programs

Past History 101 Programs

List items for Iowa History 101 Past Programs

Past Programs