Who's Who of Iowa

Notable Families, Companies & People of Eastern Iowa

The families, companies, and famous figures of eastern Iowa — from Collins Radio and HNI to Herbert Hoover, Grant Wood, and the Palmer family.

Arthur Collins (Collins Radio / Rockwell Collins)The Cedar Rapids teenager whose radios reached the North Pole — and later the Moon.Read profile →HNI Corporation (Home-O-Nize)The Muscatine company that became a Fortune 500 leader in office furniture and hearths.Read profile →The Kinzenbaw Family (Kinze)The self-taught blacksmith whose inventions changed how America plants and harvests — from a shop in Williamsburg.Read profile →The Amana ColoniesThe German religious settlers whose communal Iowa villages gave the world Amana refrigerators — and the microwave oven's Radarange.Read profile →Herbert HooverThe orphan from West Branch who became a global humanitarian, a mining engineer, and the 31st President of the United States.Read profile →Grant WoodThe eastern-Iowa painter whose “American Gothic” became one of the most famous — and most parodied — images in American art.Read profile →Buffalo Bill CodyThe Le Claire-born scout and showman whose Wild West show carried the American frontier to the world.Read profile →Bix BeiderbeckeThe Davenport-born cornet player who became one of the first great white jazz soloists of the 1920s.Read profile →The Palmer Family (Chiropractic)The Davenport family that founded the chiropractic profession — and one of radio's earliest stations.Read profile →Lou Henry HooverThe Waterloo-born First Lady — a Stanford-trained geologist who modernized the role and led the Girl Scouts.Read profile →Paul EngleThe Cedar Rapids poet who built the Iowa Writers' Workshop into the center of American creative writing.Read profile →Roy J. CarverThe Muscatine industrialist behind Bandag and Carver Pump — and one of Iowa's great philanthropists.Read profile →James Van AllenThe Mount Pleasant–born physicist who discovered the radiation belts around Earth and helped launch the Space Age.Read profile →Arabella MansfieldThe Iowa woman who in 1869 became the first female lawyer in the United States.Read profile →Alexander ClarkThe Muscatine businessman whose 1868 lawsuit desegregated Iowa's public schools — 86 years before Brown v. Board.Read profile →Julien DubuqueThe French-Canadian miner who became the first European settler in Iowa — and the namesake of its oldest city.Read profile →Chief KeokukThe Sauk leader whose name Iowa's southeastern river city carries to this day.Read profile →The Sullivan BrothersThe five Waterloo brothers who served — and died — together aboard the USS Juneau in World War II.Read profile →W. A. SheafferThe Fort Madison jeweler whose lever-fill fountain pen built a world-famous Iowa writing-instrument company.Read profile →William FrawleyThe Burlington-born character actor America knew as Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.”Read profile →Susan GlaspellThe Davenport-born writer who won a Pulitzer, co-founded the Provincetown Players, and wrote the classic “Trifles.”Read profile →Phil StongThe southeast-Iowa novelist whose “State Fair” turned the Iowa State Fair into a Hollywood classic.Read profile →Carl Van VechtenThe Cedar Rapids–born writer and photographer who championed the Harlem Renaissance and portrayed its greatest figures.Read profile →Eugene ElyThe Williamsburg-born aviator who first flew an airplane off — and onto — a ship, inventing naval aviation.Read profile →Samuel J. KirkwoodIowa's Civil War governor, who raised the troops that made the state's wartime reputation.Read profile →William B. AllisonThe Dubuque senator whose 35 years in Washington made him one of the most powerful men in the Gilded Age Senate.Read profile →Annie WittenmyerThe Keokuk reformer who fed Civil War soldiers, built homes for orphans, and led the national temperance movement.Read profile →Antoine Le ClaireThe frontier interpreter of French and Potawatomi heritage who founded the city of Davenport.Read profile →Dan GableThe Waterloo wrestler who won Olympic gold without surrendering a point — then built a college dynasty at Iowa.Read profile →Kurt WarnerThe Burlington-born quarterback who went from stocking grocery shelves to Super Bowl MVP and the Hall of Fame.Read profile →Zach JohnsonThe Cedar Rapids golfer who won the Masters and the Open Championship and captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team.Read profile →Ashton KutcherThe Cedar Rapids–born actor turned tech investor and anti-trafficking advocate.Read profile →Elijah WoodThe Cedar Rapids–born actor who played Frodo Baggins in “The Lord of the Rings.”Read profile →Mildred Wirt BensonThe Iowa journalist who, as “Carolyn Keene,” wrote the first Nancy Drew mysteries.Read profile →Bess Streeter AldrichThe Cedar Falls–born novelist whose warm stories of pioneer life reached millions of readers.Read profile →
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