The Iowa Seed Promotion Association (ISPA) was incorporated in 1987 to promote the use of public seed and crop varieties developed by Iowa State University and other agricultural experiment stations. The seeds, primarily oat and soybean, were sold and distributed under the "Iowa Pride Certified Seed" brand name. The Association’s first president was Reuben Sansgaard (1987-1992) of Story City, Iowa, followed by John Kurtz (1992-1996) and Richard Blackford (1996-1999).

Due to the dwindling number of public seed varieties available, membership fees were established in 1994 in order to create a private seed testing program. This program, the Iowa Seed Marketing Association (ISMA), was formed to acquire, test, increase, and market field crop varieties developed in the private sector. Originally, the ISMA was intended to be a subsidiary of ISPA, but that idea was later reconsidered. In 1995, ISMA became a separate corporation under the name Bounty Seed Producers and began marketing their own Bounty Brand Seed.

At the 1999 annual meeting ISPA members decided to suspend indefinitely the statewide promotion of public seed and the collection of promotion fees through assessments on certification tags.

The collection (1987-1999, undated) consists of organizational governance documents, correspondence, advertisement samples, and newsletters. The newsletters, published from 1990-1999, provide a detailed account of the Association’s activities, meeting minutes, promotions, and reports. The general correspondence contains letters from the Association president and also correspondence with Iowa State University regarding royalties for selling seeds developed by the University.

The collection is organized chronologically.