When Cora Bussey Hillis of Des Moines proposed a $25,000 appropriation to establish a child development research center in 1915, the Iowa Legislature said no. Instead they used the money to build a sheep barn at the state fairgrounds. (Des Moines Register and Leader cartoonist Ding Darling ridiculed the decision in this cartoon.)

Hillis, a tireless activist in the early-1900s child development movement, was undeterred. In 1917, with support from State University of Iowa officials, she convinced legislators at last to fund the new center, to be known as the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. From 1917 until it closed in 1974, the station (renamed the Institute of Child Behavior and Development in 1964) distinguished itself as a leader in the emerging fields of child development and child psychology.

Among the station’s research hallmarks were studies used to establish national standards for child growth rates, the country’s first freestanding preschool, and early intervention strategies that paved the way for initiatives like Head Start.

Its eminent scholars included George Stoddard, an early director of the station; Beth Wellman, a professor of psychology; Bird Baldwin, the station’s founding director; and Kurt Lewin, who conducted research in social, organizational, and applied psychology.

The Iowa Digital Library recently launched a web exhibit featuring the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station in the library’s Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes Digital Collection. Go to the online exhibit at digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ictcs/icwrs.html.

Images in the collection are from the Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs, University of Iowa Archives. Hamilton Cravens’s book, Before Head Start: The Iowa Station and America’s Children (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993) offers an excellent overview of the station’s history.

—David McCartney, University Archivist

 

Toddler playing with small boxes, 1920s [Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs (RG 30.01.01), Colleges and Departments sub-series, Child Welfare folder]. Follow this link to the archived photo on the Iowa Digital Library.

 

Children and teachers playing game outdoors, 1920s [Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs (RG 30.01.01), Colleges and Departments sub-series, Child Welfare folder].
Follow this link to the archived photo on the Iowa Digital Library.

 

Measuring children’s height and weight, 1920 [Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs (RG 30.01.01), Colleges and Departments sub-series, Child Welfare folder].
Follow this link to the archived photo on the Iowa Digital Library.