The Iowa Department of Transportation invites you to discover and view some of the agency’s 1,259 lantern slides depicting various historical transportation subjects.

These treasured images were captured from around the end of the 19th century through the first part of the 20th century at locations throughout the state.  The majority of images were shown at Iowa Highway Commission or industry meetings.

The slides measure 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 by 4 inches.  The vast majority of the images are black and white; however, some of the slides have been crudely hand-colored or painted.  The slide on the right illustrates the colorization.

Slides in this collection are not the 'master images,' rather they are printed from a negative in a similar fashion to a photograph.  No longer in the department’s possession, it is unknown if the original images still exist, making this collection an even more valuable historical resource.

Lantern slides were projected through a 'magic lantern' so they could be viewed by an audience. The images were projected on walls, cloth drapes, and, sometimes, on a wet cloth from behind the "screen." Naturally, to see images appear, either from a lantern, that heretofore was a light source only, or onto a screen, was "magical" in those early days.

The practice of projecting images from glass plates began centuries before the invention of photography in 1827. The Magic Lantern, or Sturm Lantern, was invented in 1676 and may have been one of the first slide projectors. The Magic Lantern was used to project painted images on glass for children’s picture shows and for religious displays.

In the 1840s, Philadelphia daguerreotypists, William and Frederick Langenheim, began experimenting with the Magic Lantern as an apparatus for displaying their photographic images. Because the opaque nature of the daguerreotype prevented projection, the brothers looked for a medium that would create a transparent image. They employed the discoveries of the French inventor, Niépce de St. Victor, who had discovered a way to adhere a light-sensitive solution onto glass for the creation of a negative. By using that negative to print onto another sheet of glass, rather than onto paper, the Langenheims were able to create a transparent positive image suitable for projection. The brothers patented their invention in 1850 and called it a Hyalotype.

The Langenheims envisioned their slides as forms of entertainment, charging a fee to watch their picture shows. However, within a few years lantern slides began to fulfill a variety of purposes. While entertainment remained an important function well into the 20th Century, lantern slides had the greatest impact on educational lectures.

In addition to application of the photographic medium, the process for creating lantern slides remained primarily the same throughout their 100-year history. There were two ways of printing the images: (1) the contact method; and (2) the camera method.

The first method dictated placing the negative directly on the light–sensitive glass. This required that the negative was the correct size to produce the 3.5x4 inch slide.

For larger negatives, the camera method was necessary. Using a camera with a long bed and bellows, the negative and glass were both placed in the camera and printed by exposing the glass to daylight or artificial light.

After exposure in both cases, the latent image was developed out with chemicals. After the plate was dried, the image could be hand-colored using special tints. The slide was finished with a mat and a glass cover and was taped to seal the enclosure.

Shown on the left is the Gloria Lantern made by Ernst Plank and Co. in around 1908. On the right is an unknown model of an electrified lantern.

Lantern slides were placed within a lantern slide projector so they could be viewed on a wall or screen. The first projectors used oil lamps for light. By 1870, limelight, produced by burning oxygen and hydrogen on a pellet of lime, offered a better, although more dangerous, form of illumination. In the 1890s, the invention of the carbon arc lamp, followed by electric light, provided a safe method for displaying the lantern slide image.

Use of lantern slides lasted throughout the remainder of the 19th Century and until the 1950s when their popularity began to decline with the introduction of the smaller 2 x 2 transparencies. Finally, the discovery of the Kodachrome, three-color process made 35mm slides less expensive to produce than lantern slides.


Due to their susceptibility to breakage and deterioration, the lantern slides in the DOT’s collection have been photographed and digitized so they can be readily shared.

We hope that you enjoy this amazing collection, which appeals to a wide variety of audiences, including historians, transportation interests, researchers, educators, students, authors, film producers, and others.

The Iowa DOT's Office of Media and Marketing Services serves as the custodian of the photo negatives and electronic photographs taken by the department's official staff photographers, as well as photos donated by employees or public throughout the years.

Records indicate the following photographers were or are presently employed by the Iowa Highway Commission or Iowa DOT.

• Olav Smedal – June 1957 – May 1970
• Len Shulke – Sept. 1, 1974 – July 12, 1984
• William Burns – Sept. 8, 1964 – Dec. 30, 1999
• Cory Heintz – Jan. 1999 - August 2007
• Keven Arrowsmith – Oct. 2007-Present

As you can imagine, the collections are extensive. Due to the sheer volume, only a limited number of images are currently being offered on the Web. Additional images will be added periodically, as resources permit.

The DOT has selected an eclectic mix of images, some dating back to the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s. The photos cover an assortment of transportation issues, including: the early interstate highway system; snow removal; line painting; Iowa Officials; Early Iowa History; Adopt-A-Highway Program; DOT facilities; roads and streets; city streets and buildings; pipelines; bicycles; road building; slipform paver; rivers; trains; Kate Shelley; horse powered-vehicles; vintage motor vehicles; the Lincoln Highway; aviation; William Robinson; interurban railroads; streetcars; and busses.

The photos in this collection were taken during the construction of the Grand Avenue railroad underpass in Ames, Iowa.  The project originated in 1936 and was completed in 1938.  

As with many public works projects, construction of the Grand Avenue railroad underpass was not without its share of controversy and opposition.  A group of Ames citizens/taxpayers voiced their opposition to the city’s intended use of surplus and Light and Water Fund revenues for the city’s share of the project’s costs.  Use of the funds required a public vote.

In the opposing citizen’s advertisement published November 2, 1936, in the Ames Daily Tribune, the group encouraged a “No Vote” and stated that the surplus funds should be used to lower rates or taxes so that all electricity and water users would benefit, versus being used for the underpass’ construction.

The citizen group also claimed that the C. & N.W. Railroad would be the real beneficiary of the underpass project, and the railroad was not contributing to the construction costs.

Citizens opposing the project also contended that the purpose of the project, which was to address local traffic problems, would not be accomplished.  They alleged that the project would simply shift the problem to other streets, create increased safety problems for the 800 school children who used these streets, and be detrimental to the adjacent main street business district.

The opposition movement was not successful.  In the 1936 election, the citizens of Ames approved by majority vote use of $25,000 in surplus Light and Water Fund revenues for the underpass project.

In August 1937, following two years of planning, the Iowa State Highway Commission let the bid for construction of the Grand Avenue railroad underpass from Fifth Street to Lincoln Way.  The successful bidder was Ben Cole and Son of Ames, who at the time was a leading bridge contractor in Iowa.  The total bid was $282,822. 

The bid was accepted by the commission and the project submitted to the Omaha office of the U.S. Department of Public Roads for final approval.  Approval was required because the project was financed, with the exception of the right of way costs, by the federal grade crossing elimination program.  The project was subsequently approved by the federal agency (project number Federal Aid Grade Municipal #FAGM 72-E).

On March 2, 1938, an agreement was officially drawn between the city of Ames and Iowa State Highway Commission in which the city agreed to contribute $25,000 toward the cost of constructing the Grand Avenue railroad underpass.  The Iowa State Highway Commission also agreed to reimburse the city for all project-related costs that exceeded $25,000 and to hold the city harmless from any litigation arising from the construction of the project and damages suffered by any firm, corporation, partnership or individual by virtue of the construction, which exceeded $25,000.

The total cost of acquiring the right of way for this project was $70,890.  From the sale of the acquired buildings, the Highway Commission received $1,959.  This left a balance of $68,931.  The city paid their $25,000 share and the Iowa State Highway Commission authorized the expenditure of the remaining $43,931 from state funds.

In addition to these initial right-of-way costs, the Iowa State Highway Commission paid for relocating the depot, loading platform and two east tracks of the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railway (interurban).

Clearing of the right of way occurred in 1937 in advance of the construction project’s start date.  Buildings were closed and torn down or moved.

According to published reports, this was the largest construction project for the state outside of Des Moines and Sioux City.  The accelerated construction contract called for work to continue through the winter of 1937, weather permitting, and had a targeted completion of August 1, 1938.

Embedded in the landscape of the Great Depression, amidst the larger public works projects of the 1930s, the Grand Avenue project stands as testament to the smaller movements that transformed the American landscape, one city at a time. 

The “IHC Photographs” collection contains approximately 8,500 photographs taken over a 60-year period (1914 to 1970s) of the agency’s operations.  Photographs are organized into 36 alphabetized groups (i.e., bridges, culverts or rivers), allowing a better overall understanding of the collection’s contents.   All photos have been scanned, and approximately 3/4 have been identified, indexed, and made available online.

Officially endorsed by the American Automobile Association, the Huebinger’s Automobile and Good Road Atlas of Iowa was published by the Iowa Publishing Company in 1912.  The company was originally located in Davenport under President Melchoir Huebinger.  It later moved to Des Moines under the patronage of one of Des Moines most influential and wealthiest citizens, Frederick M. Hubbell. 

With the assistance of many Iowa Highway Commission officials, the atlas proved to be one of the most important documents available to anyone at the time interested in traversing the thousands of miles of Iowa roadways.

Ideologically, the publication served two primary goals.  First, many prominent Iowa citizens were interested in using the atlas to stimulate the Good Roads Movement.  Second, other individuals were interested addressing the growing need to show in detail the thousands of miles of road that ran through the state. 

This collection contains engravings and lithographs (some hand-colored), as well as photogravures presented in a photomontage style, where several different images of towns and advertising appear on the same page. There are also many pages devoted to images of prominent citizens of Iowa. Of the 131 plates (a portion of the entire atlas) the images primarily consist of state and county road maps.  Images of early road association markers, advertisements for many Iowa locations, and a historical foreword are also included.       

The atlas in its entirety is available for viewing at the Iowa Department of Transportation’s library.