Digital Resources
Numerous indexes, records and publications in the collections are available online. Through partnerships with various organizations you can access digitized maps, publications, newspapers, vital records and much more.
Vital Records
The State Historical Society of Iowa has partnered with Family Search and Ancestry.com to digitize and make indexes and record images available online. View a list of vital records at the centers and online to get started.
Census
The society has partnered with Family Search and Ancestry.com to make indexes and images of federal, Iowa and special census records available online. View a list of available census records to get started.
Federal Land Records
On the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), General Land Office (GLO) records website you can access images of original Iowa Federal land records including Land Patents and Survey Plats.
In 2021 BLM added the Iowa Tract Books series consisting of federal lands disposed of by the ten General Land Offices operated by the federal government in Iowa (Burlington, Dubuque, Chariton, Fairfield, Fort Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, Kanesville, Sioux River and Turkey River).
When you reach the website select Tract Books - enter Iowa and the legal description of the township and range then search. Once you are in township you can browse the volume; each volume is from one of the land offices. You can also search by name. Each volume is arranged by legal description including township, range and section number.
Historic Sites
Manuscripts, Newspapers, Photographs & Documents
- Abraham Lincoln Documents
- Advantage Community History Newspaper Archive
- Carnegie Libraries in Iowa Project
- Iowa Children’s Historic Diaries
- Iowa County Historic Atlases
- Iowa Digitized Newspapers
- NewspaperArchives Iowa Database
- Photograph Collection Selections
- Robert D Ray Digital Collection
- World War II Press Clippings
Maps
Presentations
Publications
- Annals of Iowa (1863-2014)
- Iowa Heritage Illustrated (1997-2014)
- The Goldfinch (1975-2000)
- The Palimpsest (1920-1996)
