By Michael Swanger
The University of Iowa (UI) celebrates the 175th anniversary of its founding this year and the list of its milestones regarding academics, arts, athletics, health care and more, is lengthy and impressive. What’s more, the storied history of Iowa’s first state institution of higher learning has put our state on the map in a number of ways including: the first state institution of higher learning to admit women and men on an equal basis (1860); the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River (1865); the first public university to have an African-American player on its varsity football team (1895); the first university-sponsored program in creative writing, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (1936); and the nation’s first Masters of Fine Arts awarded to three Iowa students (1940), according to the university’s website 175.uiowa.edu.
The original Engineering Building south of the Pentacrest on the University of Iowa campus was home to radio station WSUI, the first educational radio station on the air west of the Mississippi River. A lower level studio was the site of live productions in front of a studio audience; the facility later became a classroom for radio production students. Photo courtesy of Jeff Stein
Historically speaking, UI’s establishment on Feb. 25, 1847, a mere 59 days after Iowa became a state, is also significant. Its foundation was the second official act of the General Assembly of Iowa when lawmakers gathered in what is now known as the “Old Capitol” to declare the State University of Iowa as the state’s first institution of higher learning. The first faculty held classes in March 1855 in the former Mechanics Academy building where Seashore Hall was located until 2021. During its first year the university boasted 124 students, including 41 women. (UI has since conferred 417,869 of degrees as of Nov. 29, 2021.)
Over the years, UI has broken a number of barriers for women and minorities. Mary Hickey Wilkinson would become one of the first women in the U.S. to earn a law degree after graduating from the College of Law in 1873. On the gridiron, UI student Frank K. Holbrook became the first African American to play varsity football for a public university in 1895, and Duke Slater, the 1921 UI All-American tackle, would become the National Football League’s first black lineman, and later, the first black judge to serve on the Circuit Court of Chicago. Also, Iowa’s Dick Culberson would become the first African American to see varsity action in a Big Ten basketball game in 1944.
Old Capitol. Photo by John Swanger
In 1870, the school’s medical department held its first classes with a total of 37 students, eight of which were women, making UI one of the first co-ed medical schools in the U.S.
The university’s natural science programs gained national prominence in the 1890s as faculty and students participated in expeditions to the Cayman Islands, Rocky Mountains, Arctic and Bahamas.
Zada Mary Cooper, hailed as the “Grand and Glorious Lady of Pharmacy,” graduated from the UI College of Pharmacy in 1897 and joined the faculty, becoming the first-known female pharmacy faculty member in the U.S.
Carl E. Seashore would begin his pioneering work at UI in 1897 in the fields of speech-language pathology, music education and the psychology of music and art.
UI Hospitals and Clinics opened in 1899, the first university-based teaching hospital west of the Mississippi River. It is now the largest such university-owned institution in the nation.
Early leaders in brain science (1919), hydro science (1920) and space science (1958) would follow.
In 1932, the world’s first educational television state would begin broadcasting from a basement room in the Engineering Building, where for seven years W9XK worked in conjunction with university radio station WSUI to provide programming that reached audiences as far as 500 miles away.
To celebrate its milestone anniversary, UI is hosting a variety of events and exhibitions this year. They include the UI Libraries Main Library Gallery exhibit “We are Hawkeyes: Celebrating 175 Years of Student Life at the University of Iowa” through July, which includes photos and memorabilia of student life. In the Old Capitol Museum, the Pentacrest Museums hosts “175 Years on the Pentacrest: Then & Now,” a photo exhibition that covers everything from academics, athletics and activism, to protests, public service and parties, through Dec. 9. For more information, visit 175.uiowa.edu.
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