The Department of Extension was founded in 1906 with funding from the Iowa General Assembly with Perry G. Holden serving as its first superintendent. In 1914, the U.S. Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, creating a nationwide system of cooperative extension services that provide outreach activities through land-grant universities. Subsequently, the Department of Extension became the Cooperative Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics. In 1966, University Extension was established by merging the short courses service group, farm demonstrations service group, engineering extension service group, and Center for Industrial Research and Service into a single administrative unit. In 2006, University Extension became Extension and Outreach. The purpose of University Extension is to engage citizens through research-based educational programs in order to extend the resources of Iowa State University across the state. This collection contains various newsletters distributed by Extension Service or its units. Included are some print-outs of email newsletters.

In 1906, the Iowa General Assembly appropriated funds to establish a Department of Extension at Iowa State College (University). Extension work in Iowa began earlier through the pioneering efforts of several people. Mary B. Welch, wife of Iowa State College’s first president, Adonijah Welch, gave six lectures on home economics to a group of sixty women in Des Moines around 1882-1883 and lectured throughout the state. Later, home economics became a regular feature of short courses alongside agriculture. James Wilson, appointed Professor of Agriculture and Director of the ISC Experiment Station in 1891, wished to broaden the reach of the college and requested to establish a short course in agriculture and a dairy school. Perry Holden later popularized and extended the agricultural short courses. Holden was initially contracted to teach a trial segment on corn as part of an agriculture short course in 1902. His charismatic personality and engaging teaching style brought high demand from the farmers taking the short course for more time devoted to corn, and he was soon hired on a permanent basis by the College as a professor of agronomy.

In 1903, Holden attended a farmer’s institute in Sioux County, speaking about the selection and cultivation of seed corn. Holden began his famous "Seed Corn Gospel Trains" in April 1904. These trains functioned as traveling exhibits that featured lectures and demonstrations that he and others delivered inside the train cars. Holden was appointed the first superintendent of Extension at Iowa State from 1906 to 1912. He focused on three branches of Extension work: demonstration farms, short courses, and education trains.

In 1914, the U.S. Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, creating a nationwide system of cooperative extension services that provide outreach activities through land-grant universities. The Act brought together funding at the national, state, and county levels to support the work of these cooperative extension services, and the program was administered through the United States Department of Agriculture. At ISU, the Department of Extension became Cooperative Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics.

In 1966, Cooperative Extension Service became University Extension through the merging of the short courses service group, farm demonstrations service group, engineering extension service group, and Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS, established in 1962). In 2006, University Extension became Extension and Outreach.

Sources

Bliss, Ralph K. History of Cooperative Agriculture and Home Economics Extension in Iowa--The First Fifty Years. Ames, IA: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 1960.

Schwieder, Dorothy. 75 Years of Service: Cooperative Extension in Iowa. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1993.

This collection (1945-2014, undated) contains newsletters distributed by Extension Service and its units. Included are print-outs of email newsletters.

Related collections in the Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library include:

• Other collections in the Extension Record Series (RS 16)

The files are listed alphabetically.