10Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Central College
Pella, Iowa
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Pella.
1876 to 2008Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
68,432Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Pella, Iowa.
Explore the past of Pella, Iowa through newspapers as well as yearbooks and annuals in Central College's digital archive. Its ten titles include material from 1876 to 2008.
Opens in a new tab.
-
Selected titles
The titles shared by Central College include “Central College Ray” and “The Simpsonian”.
-
Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
-
Different views of the past
A familiar name or event takes on another dimension in the newspaper coverage of its time, alongside the stories that mattered to the readers of that issue. Yearbooks and annuals bring together the people and activities their editors chose to remember, offering a view of life within a particular year.
Reporting from the time can reveal how people described the events, work and concerns of their day, placing a local story within the history unfolding around it. Whether you are tracing a family connection, exploring a local event or sharing history with a class, there is more to discover than names and dates alone. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.
Explore the collection
Titles in this collection
Browse ten titles and 68,432 digitized pages, with material from 1876 to 2008. A partnership between Central College and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Every search for the past starts with a question. Explore the titles below, follow the sources that speak to it, and see what new detail appears.
Central College Ray
3,282 pages from 1988 to 2000
Central College Vander Ray
16 pages in 1989
Central Ray
19,834 pages from 1876 to 2007
Ray
7,778 pages from 1968 to 2000
The Collegium Forense
58 pages in 1892
The Pelican Yearbook
30,506 pages from 1907 to 2008
The Ray
6,878 pages from 1900 to 1969
The Scentral Bray
8 pages from 1954 to 1956
The Scentral Fray
12 pages in 1950
The Simpsonian
60 pages in 1891
Opens in a new tab.
About the Community
About Central College of Pella, Iowa
Founded in 1853, Central College of Pella, Iowa, is a private, residential four-year liberal arts college known for its academic rigor and strength in global experiential learning, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), sustainability education, athletics success and tradition, and leadership and service. Central continues to value its long-standing relationship with the Reformed Church in America. The college participates in NCAA Division III athletics and is a member of the Iowa Conference. Central is an active part of the Greater Des Moines region and is just two minutes from Lake Red Rock, Iowa’s largest lake.
About the Community
Learn more about our history:
- Welcome Statement
- Covenant with the RCA
Partner Story
Mission Statement
Central College is a residential liberal arts college dedicated to helping students discover and develop their greatest potential. Guided by its ecumenical Christian tradition, the college community engages in vigorous, open inquiry in pursuit of academic excellence. The College nurtures the development of the mind while fostering spiritual and emotional maturity and physical well-being. Central integrates career preparation with the development of values essential to responsible citizenship, empowering graduates for effective service in local, national, and international communities.
Partner Story
Location
Central College is located in Pella, Iowa, just 40 minutes southeast of Iowa's capital city of Des Moines and two minutes from Lake Red Rock. Pella is a thriving community of 10,000 and home to several large international companies such as Pella Corporation (Pella Windows), Vermeer Corporation, Heritage Lace, and Precision Pulley. The city of Pella is known for tourism and the annual Tulip Time Festival that brings over 200,000 visitors each year.
Partner Story
Accreditation
Central College is a member of:
- Higher Learning Commission
- North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
- State of Iowa Board of Education
- Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Educators
- National Association of Schools of Music
- American Chemical Society
Learn more about Central's accreditation
Partner Story
Environmental Mission
Central College is a leader in environmental stewardship in Iowa and the Midwest.
- Iowa's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating, silver, by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2003 for the renovation of the Vermeer Science Center.
- Earned gold LEED rating in 2004 for McKee Residential Hall.
- Received platinum LEED rating in 2010 for the Roe Center.
Central is committed to LEED guidelines for all new campus construction and to an environmentally friendly campus.
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Look beyond a familiar name
Yearbooks and annuals preserve selected views of a time in Pella. Follow a name or organization through a dated volume in the yearbooks and annuals shared by Central College, and keep the publication's perspective visible as you ask what other sources might add. Read the publication as one historical voice; it can illuminate a community without speaking for everyone who lived there.
Where the available dates overlap, use a name, activity, or organization in a yearbook or annual as a starting point for a newspaper search. Compare the details carefully; a similar name is a lead to investigate, not an identification by itself.
Keep the title, date, page or item reference with each useful finding. Separate the words in a historical account from your interpretation, and note conflicting perspectives rather than choosing one too quickly. These notes help you connect a local story to its evidence and explain what remains uncertain.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of Central College, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.
Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.
Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.
Learn about partnerships
Stories, research tips, and archive news
Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.
May 7, 2025
Why Microfilm is still important in 2023
Preserving documents on microfilm has been a popular method of storage for many years, and it still holds many benefits today. Here…
Read article
May 7, 2025
Don’t Search For An Obituary By Only Searching For An “Obituary”
In the quest to trace our roots and understand our heritage, obituaries often serve as a crucial starting point. Obituaries are undoubtedly…
Read article
April 9, 2025
Unveiling the Hidden Mysteries: Exploring Cold Cases and Unconventional Clues
Even the most esteemed police forces in the county encounter perplexing cold case files. These unsolved mysteries often leave investigators and genealogists…
Read article
April 1, 2025
This Week in History: March 31st through April 6th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. This week in history, there is absolutely nothing to talk about… April Fools! April…
Read article
March 24, 2025
This Week in History: March 24th through March 30th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. It has officially been a year since I started writing This Week in History,…
Read article
March 18, 2025
It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?
We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
Read article