Our special collections are primarily Drake related material.  There is a collection of books by Drake alumni and Drake faculty.  We try to obtain a copy of every book authored by a Drake faculty member as well as a copy of every doctoral dissertation.  One copy is kept in special collections and the other is in the circulating collection.  Special Collections also houses a collection of various publications by Drake agencies including: catalogs, yearbooks, staff directories, school newspapers, student magazines, commencement programs and Drake Relays programs.

We maintain two collections of archival files that we call Drake Biography and Drake Agency. The Biography files contain articles, letters, memos, photos and the like for individuals that were/are Drake faculty, staff, administrators, alumni and trustees. The Agency files contain articles, memos, photos, flyers and the like for Drake departments, buildings, offices, events and publications.  Our special collections do not contain institutional archive materials such as: personnel records, student records or financial records of the University.

We have two primary collections of non-Drake material in Special Collections. The first being the Cowles Papers and the second being the Ding Darling cartoon proofs. Although we do not have the complete set of their papers, we do have an extensive collection of papers for John and Gardner (Mike) Cowles Jr. John was the publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, while Mike was publisher of the Des Moines Register. The Cowles brothers also published a variety of magazines, such as Look Magazine, through the Cowles Publications Company.  Ding Darling was a renowned political cartoonist who appeared in the Des Moines Register and was syndicated nationally for many years during the first half of the 20th century. The library was given 6000 proofs of his cartoons, which are now also accessible in electronic format through the Heritage Collections page on the library website.

Since there is restricted access to these collections, it is preferable if one makes an appointment with Mark Stumme before coming to the library. He can be contacted by phone at 515-271-3192 or email at; mark.stumme@drake.edu