Old Gold is disappointed that there have been few firsthand accounts of pre-1950 African American student life at The University of Iowa. Though the University has admitted students regardless of race since its first year of classes in 1855, the University Archives has had little primary (original) documentation of the community’s experience—until now.

Recently, with the help of a gift from Hal and Avril Chase of Des Moines, the archives acquired an album of photographs assembled by UI alumnus Patrobas Cassius Robinson (1905-1984), a St. Louis, Mo., native who graduated in 1927 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. During his years as an undergraduate and shortly afterward (1925-1929), Robinson, or P.C. as he was known to friends, assembled over 120 photographs and other items for the album.

We see images of young P.C. Robinson with friends on campus, at social events, and evidence of his travels to the western U.S. Near the front of the album are several pages of inscriptions from friends, many of whom—like Mr. Robinson—were members of the UI chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity that at the time occupied a house at 230 South Capitol Sreet., near the northeast corner of the intersection with Burlington Street.

After graduating from the University, Robinson returned to his hometown, where he taught science classes at Vashon High School in St. Louis for the next 35 years. In addition to teaching, he operated the P.C. Robinson Realty Co. in St. Louis from 1945 until 1980, when he retired. He was also one of the founders of the National Society of Real Estate Appraisers, an African American organization. Blacks were barred from joining the national appraisers’ organization at the time, prompting establishment of the NSREA.

Only occasional snapshots in the Hawkeye annual, the University’s yearbook from 1892 to 1992, and about a dozen books and articles in the archives—published and unpublished—relate the experiences of African American students during the early 20th century. But none captures the visual aspect of those times as vividly as P.C. Robinson’s album.

—David McCartney, University Archivist

These are from the P.C. Robinson Papers, RG 02.09.23, University Archives, Dept. of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries