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Community History Archives

Community History Archive Partner

Postville Public Library

Postville, Iowa

Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Postville.

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19Titles

Explore publications and collections from the past.

1865 to 2024Dates represented

See individual titles for available dates.

190,364Archive pages

Historical pages reported for this collection.

Explore local history

Discover the people, places, and stories of Postville, Iowa.

Get to know Postville, Iowa in earlier years through newspapers as well as maps and atlases shared in the Postville Public Library's digital archive. Its nineteen titles include material from 1865 to 2024. The collection also includes registers, rosters, and listings.

You can open the archive using the link below.
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  • Selected titles

    In the collection shared by Postville Public Library, you will find “Allamakee County GAR” and “The Herald”.

  • Free and open access

    No subscription or payment required.

  • Different views of the past

    Newspaper pages connect individual accounts with a wider story, preserving how events were reported and presented to the readers of the day. Maps and atlases offer a different view of a familiar place through the labels, boundaries and features their makers recorded.

Historical newspapers can connect a family name with the events and everyday concerns of an earlier time, offering more than a date or a name on its own. Bring a family connection, a question about a familiar place or an interest in local history, and see where the sources lead. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.

Explore the collection

Titles in this collection

Browse nineteen titles and 190,364 digitized pages, with material from 1865 to 2024. A partnership between Postville Public Library and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.

If you are tracing a family connection or exploring local history, the titles below offer a place to begin and a thread to follow.

Allamakee County GAR

1,662 pages in 1901

Atlas of Allamakee County

68 pages in 1886

Graphic

2,990 pages from 1891 to 1899

Iowa Volksblatt

3,578 pages from 1892 to 1918

Postville Herald

101,080 pages from 1918 to 2024

Postville Herald - Leader

16,058 pages from 2000 to 2009

Postville Herald Leader

15,570 pages from 1991 to 2007

Postville Leader

1,182 pages in 1991

Postville National Advocate

252 pages from 1884 to 1885

Postville Post

934 pages from 1882 to 1884

Postville Review

27,934 pages from 1873 to 1921

Postville Star

736 pages from 1885 to 1937

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 1

2,458 pages in 1865

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 2

2,420 pages in 1865

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 3

3,364 pages in 1865

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 4

3,600 pages in 1865

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 5

3,590 pages in 1865

Roster of Iowa Soldiers War of Rebellion Vol 6

2,322 pages in 1865

The Herald

566 pages in 2011

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About the Library

About The Postville Public Library

The Postville Public Library provides a welcoming space where people of all ages can gather to learn, grow, and create. The library offers a variety of engaging activities, training in essential topics such as job searches and emerging technologies, and access to current and accurate information resources in multiple formats. Additionally, the library provides a wide range of materials for leisure and entertainment, catering to the diverse interests of its patrons.

Postville Public Library photo 1

Library History

The History Of The Postville Public Library

The Postville Library Association was formed in January 1911 by eight literary and civically-minded women. Initially, the library met in the Postville Schools, but by 1934, it moved to a vacant store building on Main Street. In 1940, the library moved into the old city-owned fire station. By 1970, a new library building was constructed and officially opened to the public on June 5, 1970. To accommodate growing needs, a fund drive was started in January 1994, resulting in an addition to the building, which was completed in January 1996. This expansion was funded by donations and community support, demonstrating the strong local commitment to the library.

About the Community

About The City of Postville

Postville, Iowa, is a small town with a rich history and a strong sense of community. The town is known for its diverse population and vibrant cultural heritage. The Postville Public Library plays a crucial role in preserving the town's history, providing residents with access to a wealth of local historical resources, and serving as a hub for community engagement and education.

More ways to explore and share local history

Research Guidance

Look for the story behind a result

Begin with a person, neighborhood, business, or event you want to understand in Postville. The newspaper titles in the newspaper titles shared by the Postville Public Library can connect that question with reports from earlier years; leave a possible match open until its date and details fit. Search a person, place, or event with a second term, then compare the date and context of each result. A repeated name needs more evidence before it identifies the same person or connects two parts of a story.

Where the available dates overlap, compare a place mentioned in a newspaper with the mapped setting. Check each source's date and purpose before connecting a street or boundary. A familiar place name can change meaning over time.

Capture the title, date, and page or item location for a detail you may want to revisit. Label your interpretation as your reading, not the source's own words. Keep enough context with the note that another reader can retrace it.

Review collection titles

Community Partnership

Keeping local history a community resource

This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Postville Public Library, 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
Read All About It

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.

Newest published articles

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.
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