Students explore UNI history through tours at Cedar Falls cemetery
Students explore UNI history through tours at Cedar Falls cemetery
One group of UNI students is learning about the past of the university they call home. For the fall semester, the students planned an educational public tour of Fairview Cemetery in Cedar Falls where many early presidents, original faculty members and other key figures in UNI’s 150-year history are laid to rest.
“It’s been a really good opportunity to interact with a UNI 150 event off campus and learn about different people throughout history and why they're important and connect with other students,” said Lucy Galloway, who is a communication and Spanish major. “It's been a fun opportunity to go do something new and different.”
“I think this tour will be really helpful for students to feel a stronger connection to UNI,” said Mary Tharp, a biology and Spanish major. “It’s a really nice way to commemorate the 150th year and talk about different people who have contributed to our school over time.”
The tour, just a few minutes north of campus, will allow the public to visit the final resting place of figures who are significant to UNI’s history, from original faculty members like Moses Bartlett all the way to alum and acclaimed writer Nancy Price. During the event, visitors will receive a map to choose their own path, and students from Thomas Connors’ Death and Memory class can be found throughout the cemetery ready to share about the individual they’ve spent weeks researching.
“It's very come and go, so you can choose who you want to go learn about,” explained Madilynn Schmidt, who is a graphic design major. “A lot of the times, cemeteries are seen as creepy or scary. So it's nice to have a calm environment for people to explore.”
“It's a really good opportunity to learn about the different stages in UNI's history too, because some of these graves have been around since before it was even a school,” said Jocelyn Hendricks, a biology major. “We have someone in class who's covering the orphans' grave, which is from before it was a university when one of the buildings was an orphanage. From there, there are graves from when it was the Normal School to the Teachers College and all the different stages.”
The student researchers have spent extensive time with the Special Collections & University Archives, looking for images, gaining an understanding of these influential figures and preparing information to share with the public during the tour. Staff members from the university archives came to the Death and Memory class to explain how to use the UNI resources that are available to students and how to conduct thorough historical research.
“I chose to research a woman named Mary Wheat Graves,” said Mallory Howard, a history education major. “She was a professor of literature in the 30s, and I just thought it was really important for me specifically to choose a woman, just because of how sometimes in history women aren't as present in the stories we tell, and I thought it would be important to bring her to light and have people know more about her as well.”
“I picked Dr. Leland Sage,” said Tharp. “He was a historian and history professor at UNI. He is the record holder for the longest amount of service to UNI. He's written a really important book to Iowa's history, compiling all sorts of different political events and how we got to how we are today. He did a lot of music stuff with his wife, and I thought that was really cool.”
Photo courtesy of UNI Special Collections & University Archives
Photo courtesy of UNI Special Collections & University Archives
Through this course, Tharp loved learning how accessible UNI’s history is through IndexUNI and the UNI Museum.
“I didn't realize we had so much stuff stored and preserved in the museum in the library, and I think it's really cool to be able to just go and witness it as just an everyday student,” she said.
The students, who are all taking this course for honors credit, learned more than just UNI’s history. They also gained connections across campus who have helped them in their research and their work marketing the event.
“It’s been very hands-on,” said Hendricks. “It's fun to leave campus and do something in an educational setting. It was kind of like taking a field trip.”
The UNI Sesquicentennial History Tour of Fairview Cemetery will take place on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 4 at 2 p.m., with rain dates a week later during UNI Homecoming weekend.
