Historic Iowa Postcards

Grinnell College Libraries' Historic Iowa Postcard Collection. A collection of postcards from 1900 through the middle of the 20th century, covering all parts of Iowa.

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Looking at a three-story brick and stone building which was built in 1901. It replaced the old school which was destroyed by a fire in 1900. 1908 postmark.
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Union Park was established in 1896 at East 9th Street and Thompson Avenue as one of Des Moines' original five parks. The park was part of the old Thompson farm and started with sixteen acres of land. 1908 postmark. Number 6452.
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Baxter Junior Band showing 14 members holding instruments. Second from the left standing is Wesley Krampe as stated on verso. 1908 postmark.
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Fire fighters fighting a grain elevator fire in Belle Plaine, Iowa. Two fire engines are pictured. Grain elevator in the background says Northern Grain Company. 1908 postmark.
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Looking northeast at Burlington, Iowa business district with the Des Moines County Courthouse and the Mississippi River in the background. 1908 postmark. Number 12189.
grinnell:16977
An aerial view looking east with the Pottawattamie County Courthouse on the left in the background. This second courthouse on South Pearl Street was built in 1888 at a cost of $141,800. It was later declared unsafe and was replaced with a Modernist structure in 1977. 1908 postmark.
grinnell:16884
Looking northwest at the Pavillion at the Grand Plaza which was built on the North Shore in 1885 with a saloon, restaurant and boardwalk. It was replaced by a dance hall in 1911, which burned down in 1926. The Council Bluffs Country Club can be seen in the background on the left. Lake Manawa was created in 1881 from a Missouri River flood. 1908 postmark. Number A5383.
grinnell:14436
People gathered to board a steamer for a cruise. The Clinton Bridge is in the background. In the first quarter of a century after Clinton county was entered for settlement, it had to depend upon the river and the freight wagon, with an occasional stage coach, or horse mail-carrier, for all that it received from the outside world. 1908 postmark. Number 2553.
grinnell:13993
Looking north on unpaved Broad Street. Number 16488.
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Looking south on unpaved Broad Street with bicyclist and Congregational Church in the foreground.
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Card has small school banner with cheer: "Whoop em! Skoop em! Thru and thru. We do! We do! Why don't you? Always loyal, always true, B.H.S. scarlet and blue"--t.p.. Copyright 1908 with Acmegraph Co. Number 015.
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Chicago & North Western railroad shops in Belle Plaine, Iowa with a railroad locomotive on a turntable. 1908 postmark.
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Railway employees on car 3356 either loading or unloading goods onto the train. 1908 postmark.
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Campus scene. 1908 postmark.
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View of children on a spring day in Central Park. In 1885 the city of Davenport acquired the property that had been the Scott County Fairgrounds. It is a significant example of landscape planning, and of the civic improvements that were being made by the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Five years after the land was purchased and improved it was named Central Park after New York City's park of the same name. Central Park was renamed Vander Veer after an early Davenport park commissioner in 1911. Located at 215 West Central Park Avenue, Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, the park consists of 70.8 acres, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 1908 postmark. Number 13206.
grinnell:18448
Circuit Chautauquas were part of a travelling adult education movement started at the turn of the century reaching Iowa in 1904. Special reports, pronunciation tests, and a variety of other exercises are introduced at the meetings. 1908 postmark. Number B1165A6.
grinnell:16184
Several men are standing in front of a train wreck. On April 23, 1908, southwest of DeWitt, Iowa, at Silver Creek, flooding weakened a bridge and gave way to stock train 132 where an engine and 17 cars of cattle fell into the water. Three crewmen perished in the wreck.
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View of the wrecked train. On April 23, 1908, southwest of DeWitt, Iowa, at Silver Creek, flooding weakened a bridge and gave way to stock train 132 where an engine and 17 cars of cattle fell into the water. Three crewmen perished in the wreck.
grinnell:16185
Men, women and children are looking at an aftermath of a train wreck. On April 23, 1908, southwest of DeWitt, Iowa, at Silver Creek, flooding weakened a bridge and gave way to stock train 132 where an engine and 17 cars of cattle fell into the water. Three crewmen perished in the wreck.
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Lake with man and women in a boat and chutes in background. 1908 postmark.