8Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Urbandale Historical Society
Urbandale, Iowa
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Urbandale.
1949 to 2006Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
81,586Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Urbandale, Iowa.
Explore the past of Urbandale, Iowa through newspapers in the Urbandale Historical Society's digital archive. Its eight titles include material from 1949 to 2006.
Opens in a new tab.
-
Selected titles
Explore titles such as “Blue Jay Chatter” and “Urbandale Today”, shared by Urbandale Historical Society.
-
Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
-
A closer look
Newspaper pages connect individual accounts with a wider story, preserving how events were reported and presented to the readers of the day.
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 eight titles and 81,586 digitized pages, with material from 1949 to 2006. This collection is shared through Urbandale Historical Society's partnership with Advantage Archives. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Bring a person, place or date you recognize, and browse the titles below for a first clue in the story you want to follow.
Blue Jay Chatter
1,060 pages from 1949 to 1989
Northwest Sun
240 pages in 1963
The Campus Courier
32 pages in 1970
Urbandale Jayhawker
24 pages from 1993 to 1996
Urbandale News
56,754 pages from 1954 to 1995
Urbandale News Sun
6,130 pages from 1963 to 1969
Urbandale Press Citizen
11,186 pages from 2000 to 2006
Urbandale Today
6,160 pages from 1970 to 1975
Opens in a new tab.
About the Archive
About the Urbandale Historical Society Digital Archives
The Urbandale Historical Society offers free and open access to digitized local histories, photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, and other archival materials—serving as an educational resource for genealogists, local researchers, and community members interested in exploring the collective heritage of Urbandale, Iowa. In partnership with Advantage Archives , the society supports the shared responsibility of preserving firsthand perspectives and making “history as it happened” discoverable and accessible.
About the Archive
Historical Collections & Research Tools
- Community History Newsletter Files – archived issues of the society’s newsletters covering people, places & events of Urbandale.
- Historic Image & Postcard Collections – photographs of homes, businesses, streetcars, coal-mine sites, and schools within Urbandale’s development period.
- Olmsted-Urban House Archive – materials related to the historic farmhouse at 4010 70th Street, including restoration records and early 20th-century household documentation.
- Oral Histories & Community Reminiscences – interviews and written recollections of long-time Urbandale residents, documenting everyday life, school stories, and community change.
These collections act as a portal to Urbandale’s past—preserving cultural assets such as photographs, diaries, and local newspaper extracts, while enabling practical online access to primary sources that document the community’s transformation from a rural township to a suburban city.
About the Society
About the Urbandale Historical Society
Located at 4010 70th Street, Urbandale, Iowa 50322, the Urbandale Historical Society operates from the historic Olmsted-Urban House and is staffed entirely by volunteers. The society provides educational programming, hosts exhibits, and welcomes visitors on select open-house Sundays. Phone contact: 515-270-2917.
Institution History
The History of the Society & Archival Mission
The Urbandale Historical Society was founded in 1976 to collect, preserve, and share the heritage of the Urbandale community, including its early streetcar era, coal-mining past, and post-war suburban growth. The society’s home—the Olmsted-Urban House (built 1904)—was acquired in 1987 and now serves as its headquarters and museum.
About the Community
About Urbandale, Iowa
Urbandale was incorporated on April 16, 1917, originally emerging as a streetcar suburb of Des Moines and home to several coal mines. Over the decades, it has grown into a city of over 45,000 residents while preserving ties to its early community patterns.
Local History
Did You Know?
- The Olmsted-Urban House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and reflects an early 20th-century family farmstead that helped shape Urbandale’s identity.
- The Urbandale Historical Society holds a monthly program series—topics range from local institutions such as the Urbandale Public Library, the city’s trolley-car system, to area religious institutions.
To explore photographs, documents, newsletters and community narratives, visit: Visit the Urbandale Historical Society Digital Archives .
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Follow a report into its setting
A family name, a familiar street or a story passed down through generations can lead to a closer look at the history of Urbandale. The digital archive shared by the Urbandale Historical Society offers a place to begin. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Read the headline and neighboring articles as well as the matching lines. The surrounding page can show whether a report is local news, an editorial, or another kind of account; compare its details with later coverage where available.
Take a place or institution mentioned in a report as a new search lead. Check the issue date and read nearby articles to see how the setting is described. Preserve historical names and boundaries as written, and compare another dated reference before connecting the place to a present-day location.
Record which title, date, page, or item supports a useful lead. Mark unanswered questions before connecting it to a family or community story. A similar name can point you toward another source, but it is not proof of identity.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Urbandale Historical Society, 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