Descartes Pascal Papers
Selection of images documenting rural life in Iowa around the turn of the twentieth century
Contents: About the collection | Accessibility| Tech
About Descartes Pascal Papers
Descartes Pascal, photographer, farmer, and pioneer seed corn breeder, was born in De Witt, Clinton County, Iowa where he farmed, raising corn, shorthorn cattle, and Berkshire hogs. Pascal became interested in corn breeding after 1900 and developed the Grand Champion ear of purebred Reid’s Yellow Dent corn in 1907. He also wrote and published articles on corn breeding; spoke at colleges, farmers’ institutes, and chautauquas; and judged corn breeding contests in Iowa. Pascal served as secretary to the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He was also a practicing photographer.
The Descartes Pascal Papers (1890-1937, n.d.), located in Special Collections, includes a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and memorabilia related to Pascal’s achievements in corn breeding, and corn breeding in Iowa generally.
Also included are 180 glass plate negatives and two tintypes made by Pascal, documenting rural Iowa from the 1880s through the 1910s.
The Descartes Pascal Digital Collection contains a selection of images from the glass plate negative collection documenting rural life in Iowa around the turn of the twentieth century, including homesteads, buildings, and the Pascal family. Only a portion of the Descartes Pascal collection housed in the Special Collections Department is represented in the digital collection.
Accessibility information
The Iowa State University Library is committed to providing access to its digital content. Certain material, particularly older materials, handwritten documents, and visual content, present unique challenges in providing fully accessible resources. If you are experiencing barriers to accessing, viewing, or navigating the Digital Collections site please contact us for assistance or to request additional formats.
Technical Credits - CollectionBuilder
This digital collection is built with CollectionBuilder, an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that is developed by faculty librarians at the University of Idaho Library following the Lib-Static methodology.
Using the CollectionBuilder-CSV template and the static website generator Jekyll, this project creates an engaging interface to explore driven by metadata.