Welcome To Iowa City – June 1887.

On Tuesday, June 21, 1887, The Iowa City Republican issued an eight-page salute to Iowa City – a classic overview of our fair city as it was so very long ago. You can see the decorative front page here. Now, here’s the final page – page eight – which offers an extensive overview of some of Iowa City’s most vibrant educational opportunities…

In 1887, there were five schools in the Iowa City Public School System – a new Grammar School, and four smaller Ward Schools – each offering the equivalent of a high school education. As you can see from the article above (left), there were 27 graduates in May of 1887.

*In 1893, the first **Iowa City High School** was built – on the southwest corner of Centre Market Square (see map above) – which replaced the four smaller Ward schools. Read more here.*

Since the 1860’s, Iowa City was known as the Athens of Iowa – a place where education and the arts were highly valued. Read more here. As early as the 1840’s, private schools were being offered to Iowa Citians, and by the 1880’s, there were several advanced education opportunities awaiting young men and women who were looking to be trained in the highly-marketable skills of short-hand, typing, and business administration.

From the very beginning, Iowa City’s Catholic community was heavily involved in education. In 1862, St. Agatha’s Seminary opened, offering women the same educational opportunities that were being offered to men. Over the next fifty years, this ground-breaking school offered advanced business training to hundreds of young women. Read more here.

Of course, The State University of Iowa (SUI) was the centerpiece of higher education across Iowa in 1887. As you can read from the articles below, SUI was rapidly growing into a full-fledged University – rivaling even those well-established colleges back East – with many “firsts” of our own…

1868: The first College of Law west of the Mississippi River.

1870: The nation’s first coeducational medical school opened its doors for classes.

1872: The first permanent college-level Department of Education in the United States was founded at SUI.

1882: The first School of Dentistry west of the Mississippi River held its first classes.

The Sciences were a top-priority at SUI in the 1880’s – with an Astronomical Observatory being built on University Square (below left), and one of SUI’s top professors – Gustavus Hinrichs – turning his home into a weather lab (below right).

Want to talk a walking tour of the SUI campus & Iowa City in 1882? Come see the nine buildings of SUI.

So, there you have it. Iowa City in 1887 – as reported by The Iowa City Republican. But before we close, we should offer you The Republicans‘ overview of Iowa City newspapers. While The Republican and The Daily Press were our city’s two main newspapers, there were other smaller papers printed as well.

Over the years, **The Republican** and **The Daily Press** were often found in different corners when slugging it out over political issues. But, in this June 21, 1887 edition, The Republican actually mentioned the existence of the Democrat paper – *The Press*!

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.