1857, the Old Capitol became the first permanent "home" of the university.
In 1855, the university became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. In addition, Iowa was the world's first university to accept creative work in theater, writing, music, and art on an equal basis with academic research.
The university was one of the first institutions in America to grant a law degree to a woman (Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson, 1873), to grant a law degree to an African American (Alexander G. Clark, Jr. in 1879), and to put an African American on a varsity athletic squad (Frank Holbrook in 1895). The university awarded its first doctorate in 1898.
=== 20th century–present ===
The University of Iowa established the first law school and dental school west of the Mississippi River. It was the first university to use radio (later television, too) in education, in 1932, and it pioneered in the field of standardized testing. Also, the University of Iowa was the first Big Ten …
