Around the nation and the world
- 1893, The Chicago World’s Fair closes after 179 days over 25 million attended.
- 1896, First modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece. Thirteen nations participated, including the United States of America.
- 1897, The first Boston Marathon is run with fifteen runners.
- 1897, The first underground subway in North America opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
Around campus
- 1890, Morrill Hall is constructed to fill the need for a library, chapel, museum, as well as recitation rooms. Named to honor the Senator who had sponsored the Morrill Act, which had established the land-grant college system, Morrill Hall is built at a cost of less than $30,000. It is re-dedicated after renovation in 2007.
- 1890, The Iowa Agricultural College Student begins publication. From 1897 through 1947, it is known as the Iowa State College Student, and as of 1947, becomes the Iowa State Daily.
- 1891, The Ames and College Railway is installed, to connect the campus with the town of Ames. as an alternative to the mud road, later known as the Dinkey. The Dinkey delivers mail to the post office located inside the Hub, carries building materials used in constructing Marston Engineering Hall and the Campanile. The fare is five cents each way The Dinkey runs until 1907 when it is replaced by an electric streetcar
- 1892, Professor Marston joins the faculty in engineering, and later goes on to serve as Iowa State’s first dean of engineering from 1904 through 1932.
- 1892, Elmina Wilson is the first woman to receive a Civil Engineering degree from Iowa State, and goes on to receive her M.S. in 1894. She teaches at Iowa State, serving as an Assistant of Civil Engineering (1892-1897); Instructor of Civil Engineering (1898-1902); and as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering (1902-1904). Elmina taught at Iowa State from 1892 to 1904, when she moved to New York City to work as a structural engineer. Her sister, Alda, also earns a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1894.
- 1893, The Class of 1894 publishes the university’s first yearbook, “The Bomb.”
- 1893, The Board of Trustees direct the Department of Civil Engineering to prepare detailed maps of the campus, including the locations of buildings, driveways, sewers, drains, water pipes, as well as building wiring and piping systems.
- 1895, The football team earns the name “Cyclones” following a victory over Northwestern University. An article in the Chicago Tribune newspaper, headlined “Struck by a Cyclone: It Comes from Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town,” reads: “Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday.”
- 1895, Margaret (Stanton) Hall, the first dormitory for women opens.
- 1897, The Marston Water Tower, the first steel and tallest water tower west of the Mississippi, is built. Anson Marston, the head of civil engineering at the time and later the dean of engineering, designed the tower to provide an adequate supply of water on campus. Using steel instead of wood allowed him to double the load requirements and elevate the 162,000-gallon barrel more than 150 feet.
- 1898, First mention of the Civil Engineering Summer Camp first appears in the 1898-99 ISC catalog.
- 1898, The Board of Trustees adopts an official seal with the college’s new name, The Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts—Science with Practice. Four divisional groupings are made: agriculture, veterinary science, engineering, and science and philosophy.
- 1899, The college colors are changed from silver, yellow, and black to cardinal and gold, to make it easier to dye sweaters.
- 1899, A carillon of ten bells is installed in the Campanile (erected in 1898).