Iowa State University. Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station

The Iowa State University Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station was founded as a result of the Hatch Act of 1887. The Act provides for funding of cooperative research at Land Grant Colleges. On March 3, 1888, the Iowa General Assembly approved the act to officially fund the Station. In January 1891, James Wilson became the first Director of the Experiment Station. His programs emphasized the reorganization of the work of the Station. In 1913, the staff, which consisted of a combination of specialized researchers and a part-time teaching force, published research bulletins and offered the first research fellowships. The mission for the station, along with the college of Agriculture and its interrelated programs, has always been to assure the competitive capability of Iowa to provide low cost, high quality food and fiber for U.S. citizens and for people throughout the world.

Since its inception, the Station, also referred to as Iowa's Agricultural Research Institute, has existed under the auspices of the College of Agriculture. Specifically, it is a research arm of the College. However, the Station also supports programs in almost every other college. The projects of the Station have varied from the work of the college departments with which it is affiliated. Early experiments dealt with crops, soil, horticulture, and dairying. Today, the Station has become over-arching in scope, encompassing the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, and several other agencies which are represented in this collection.