Reverend William E. Wilkie (1930-2017) grew up in Marshalltown, Iowa and served eastern Iowa for his entire life. Ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Dubuque in 1950, he joined the Loras College faculty in 1966 after completing degrees at Loras College (1950), Catholic University of America (1954, 1956), Universite de Fribourg (1966), and Cambridge University (1972). While his initial research focused on European history, Father Wilkie turned his attention to local history in the late 1970s. He helped to establish the Loras College Center for Dubuque History and served as the first Director from 1978 to 1986. He published a well-received history in 1988 entitled Dubuque on the Mississippi, 1788-1988 as well as co-authoring a history of the Archdiocese of Dubuque (1987). In the early 1990s, Father Wilkie traveled extensively in Europe to carry out archival research for his project on the mapping of the Mississippi Valley, 1517-1840. He continued working on this project for the remainder of his life, donating an extensive map collection to the Center for Dubuque History that is currently available for public use.
History Seminar: Student Papers, 1984-1996
Student research papers between 1984 and 1996 comprise the Wilkie Research Seminar Local History Collection. Over 149 history majors participated in a research seminar as seniors to compile evidence on Dubuque County history from primary sources in extensive appendices and summarized their findings in short reports accompanying the data. For example, student researchers created complex tables from the 1850 and 1860 census reports on the various townships in the county looking at various demographic traits such as age, gender, ethnicity and immigration status. Others documented land ownership in various townships by plotting this information on plat maps. Through an internship program, current students created this index to make this data available to contemporary researchers. Access the collection by reading abstracts of each paper, looking up a building or individual by name, seeking out a particular primary source (such as the 1850 census), or utilizing the extensive subject index.