History of IAHEES

Iowa was the first state to accept the provisions of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, receiving 204,000 acres of land scrip. By careful handling of the lease and sale of that land, Iowa eventually received more than $800,000 in endowment, far in excess of early estimates, and more than many other states who handled their grants less prudently.

The Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station was established March 2, 1888, the year after Congress passed the Hatch Act charging land-grant colleges to establish a research organization to advance science to solve problems for the food, agricultural and natural resource systems, and links with other land-grant university research programs across the nation in a vital research chain.

Several "firsts" arose out of experiment station research, including the nation's earliest social survey of rural communities and establishment of the first statistical laboratory applied to agricultural research. While on an experiment station research appointment, John Vincent Atanasoff designed and built the first electronic digital computer.

Today, research by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station serves producers, agribusinesses, rural communities and policymakers.