The Press-Citizen Celebrates Iowa City’s Centennial.

In July of 1939, the good citizens of Iowa City took time out of their summer schedules to celebrate 100 years of existence. And quite the party it was.

*1939 Iowa City Centennial Celebration on the steps of Old Capitol via the camera of Fred Kent.*

The Iowa City Press-Citizen got in on the celebration by publishing a huge 76-page Centennial Edition on Saturday, July 1, 1939. On this page, we’d like to share reproductions of the pages from that special edition, as found in a digital format on Newspapers.com. Sadly, as you’ll see below, many of the pages no longer reveal the beauty of the original artwork, but in some cases, we have been able to recover a handful of photographs from an original newspaper that is kept at the State Historical Society Research Center in Iowa City. Thanks to Allison Johnson and her team in helping us get those pics!

The Front Page of the Iowa City Press-Citizen‘s July 1, 1939 edition uses the “look” of The Iowa Standard – Iowa City’s first newspaper – first published on June 10, 1841. Read more here.

Page Two offers the “official program” for the weekend’s big celebration. Click here to see the entire Centennial program.

Pages Three & Four – on the editorial page, we find “A Thought For Our Centennial.”

**Page Four** also featured a list of people and resources used in putting together this big 75-page edition – including, of course, **Professor Benjamin Shambaugh & his wife Bertha**. Read more here.

Page Five begins the many ads from local businesses found throughout the 75-page edition. Pictured on Page Six are Capt. Frederick M. Irish and his wife, Elizabeth – early pioneers to Iowa City. Read more here.

Page Seven offers the story and pics of Johnson County’s First Marriage (1838). Read more “firsts’ here.

On Pages Eight & Nine, check out the movies playing ‘At Iowa City Movie Theaters.’ Read more about the theaters in Iowa City from 1912 to 1940 here.

Also, on Page Nine, we find the pics of Iowa City pioneers Robert & Julia Hutchinson. Read more here.

Page Ten gives us a look at the Iowa City Centennial Association Board of Directors – which included both Benjamin Shambaugh and Mildred Pelzer – whose Iowa City historic murals (1934) appeared throughout this Press-Citizen Centennial edition and were proudly displayed in the Jefferson Hotel lobby for many years (read more here). Page Eleven offers the latest news from local churches.

Page Twelve is the Sports Page – with a picture of the 1873 state baseball champions. Read more about professional baseball in Iowa City here.

Pages Thirteen through Sixteen contain the classified ads and the comics – mainstays of all daily newspapers. Page Sixteen closes up the first section featuring pics of eight contestants who entered the Centennial beard-growing contest!

Pages Seventeen & Eighteen open the “A” Section with a feature story on Lieutenant Albert M. Lea and his book that promoted the District of Iowa to countless readers back east. Read more here.

Page Nineteen features the first of eight murals created by Iowa City artist, Mildred Pelzer. Five of the eight were featured in this July 1 Centennial edition. The first is entitled – Poweshiek On The Iowa (pictured below). You can read more about these beautiful murals here. Page Twenty covered “The Midnight Ride of Philip Clark” (read the story here) and the amazing story of “Johnson County’s First Business Meeting.” (read the details here).

Page Twenty features the second Mildred Pelzer mural dedicated to Chauncey Swan and his team that selected the site for Iowa’s new capital city in May 1839, entitled – We Select The Capital Site (pictured below). Page Twenty-Two contains the story of Chauncey Swan and his site selection for Iowa City. Read more here.

Page Twenty-Three covers the diary of Cyrus Sanders – one of Johnson County’s earliest pioneers (read more here), Page Twenty-Four discusses the iconic Old Stone Capitol (read more here), and Page Twenty-Five takes a look at the first two July 4th celebrations in Iowa City – 1839 & 1840 (read more here).

Page Twenty-Six features Mildred Pelzer‘s third mural – First Families (pictured below), which depicts the surge of pioneers who flooded into Iowa in the 1840’s. Page Twenty-Eight discusses the Population Growth of Johnson County – starting in 1838. Read more here.

Page Thirty features Mildred Pelzer‘s fifth mural (in a series of eight), entitled – At The Iowa City Landing (pictured below), which depicts the First Steamboat Appearance in 1841 (Read more here). Page Thirty-One has a story on the early Bridges of Iowa City (read more here), while Page Thirty-Three shares the fun story of Rev. Hummer and the Bell of North Presbyterian Church (read more here).

Page Thirty-Four features Mildred Pelzer‘s sixth mural (in a series of eight), entitled – Stage Ready (pictured below), which depicts the Stagecoach Era in Iowa City’s history (read more here). Page Thirty-Five has an informative article on Iowa City’s First Public Schools (read more here), while Page Thirty-Seven features the Earliest Hotels (read more here).

Page Thirty-Nine discusses the Iowa City Newspaper Wars of the 1840’s. Read more here.

Section AA was comprised of 20 pages, packed with stories from Iowa City’s earliest years. We’ll let you browse through on your own. Enjoy the journey…

Finally, we come to Section B – 15 pages of informational articles, beginning with, of course, Pages Sixty-Two & Sixty-Three (above & below) – devoted to Chauncey Swan – the father of Iowa City. Read more here.

Page Sixty-Five discusses Chief Poweshiek and the Meskwaki Tribe (read more here), while Page Sixty-Six is dedicated to Philip Clark, one of Johnson County’s earliest settlers (read more here).

Since the newspaper version of the 1868 Iowa City Map on Page Sixty-Eight (above) is so unclear, here’s (below) what it looked like. Hmm. Was it only a coincidence that the 1868 map appeared on page 68?

Page Sixty-Nine takes a look at Father Samuel Mazzuchelli – the pioneer priest who played an important role in Iowa City’s first decade. Read more here. While it didn’t appear in this centennial edition, here’s Mildred Pelzer‘s fourth mural – We Build Our Capitol (pictured below), which featured Father Mazzuchelli working alongside Chauncey Swan.

Surprisingly, the Centennial edition failed to feature a story and the corresponding Mildred Pelzer mural (her seventh in a series of eight) on the arrival of the railroad in 1856 – Railroad Arrivals (pictured below).

Well, finally, we reach the end of this special 76-page edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen. The next to last page – Page Seventy-Five – discusses Walter Butler and his temporary capitol building in Iowa City. Read more here. Sadly, page 76 doesn’t seem to have been saved, but regardless, we hope you have enjoyed this journey back to July 1, 1939. Happy 100th Birthday, Iowa City!

On Monday, July 3, 1939 – the Press-Citizen reported on the big weekend Centennial celebration. Click here to read about the Press-Citizen’s celebration of Iowa City’s sesquicentennial in 1989.

The Daily Iowan had a special 16-page edition as well on Sunday, July 2, 1939. Here’s those pages for you to peruse as well!

All these years later – kudos to The Iowa City Press-Citizen – on July 1, 1939, your 75-pages gave us one great overview of Iowa City’s first one hundred years!

On July 1, 1976, The Iowa City Press-Citizen published a special 76-page Bicentennial edition. In that edition there were articles and pictures related to stories found on this page. You can read more here.