The Sturm Family Collection is comprised of materials related to the Sturm family of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Included are scrapbooks, photographs, documents, correspondence, and ephemera. While the bulk of the collections focuses on Harold Sturm, additional materials are from and about Harold's father and mother, his wife, and other relatives. Series 1, Scrapbooks, consists of three scrapbooks, two of which were compiled by Harold Sturm's mother, Eva. The majority of these two scrapbooks consists of Harold's typewritten and handwritten correspondence he sent to his parents while serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II (WWII).

The correspondence envelopes are glued to the scrapbook pages and occasionally have notes on them, most likely written by Eva Sturm. The letters themselves have been placed in folders (see “Arrangement” above). These correspondence is not arranged chronologically and instead is in its original order from the scrapbooks.

The correspondence itself is a blend of lighthearted details, an overview of Harold's work, and an occasional mention of what is happening in the war. Harold could not write explicitly about his work or location, due to military censorship rules. Some of this censorship is represented in the correspondence. Generally, Harold focused on the following subjects: the weather; movies/shows he attended; work and sleep schedule; the lack of consistent mail delivery; memories of growing up in Iowa and life in Cedar Falls; and requests for items from home, such as film and food. A frequent topic is the "Ivory Tower," which was what Harold and his tent mates named their tent. The group asked Eva Sturm to make a flag for them, and a photograph of her and the flag is included in Scrapbook #, page 51. A person featured prominently throughout the letters is "Edward (Ed) Secor," one of Harold's close friends with whom he shared a tent. Secor himself wrote to the Sturms on a few occasions, including in Scrapbook ##, letter [23:1]. The following excerpts illustrate the contents and the spirit of of the correspondence the series:

Scrapbook #1:
- January 1, 1945, Harold's sense of humor: "Lights just went out am using my flash light now. Just had to fill my pen, too, What next? Guess I'd better close before the tent falls in on me or something. Just got a bug in my eye. That's the last straw!"
- February 5, 1945: Harold explains a number he put under the letter's location and date, which he notes is "known as a date-and-time group and is used in teletype." He sometimes included this number string in other letters.
- August 9, 1944: Description of the scene upon arrival in Saipan, "...we rode through Garapan Town, which is one of the most abolished cities I have ever seen. There is not a whole building standing. The city took one of the heaviest bombings and shellings of any city in the world I believe..."
- Page 61 includes items glued to it, including a sketch captioned, "The Boys Home on Saipan, 1944 and 1945, sketch by Edward Secor" and a get-well card from Harold and Ed, alongside a newspaper clipping noting that Mrs. Dallas Sturm received flowers from her son and his buddy.
- October 10, 1944: Harold wrote that they "are supposed to get to see Betty Hutton in person tonight here at one if [sic] the island hospitals..." A loose clipping from this scrapbook features a photograph and caption of Betty Hutton, "The First Movie Star to Stop at Saipan." An additional items(s) of note are three “ten sen” notes and one “one yen” note, which were U.S. military currency. These are in the “loose items” folder from scrapbook 1.


Scrapbook #2:
- September 7, 1945: "At last the censorship regulations have been lifted...Now I can say whatever I want in my letters. First of all you will see that I am located about two miles west of Yontan Airfield..." Harold further wrote that he had specifically been at Hickam Field in Oahu and on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
- April 16, 1945: censorship example (writing to uncle), "I was very sorry to hear that Commander Collins has been injured. Is there any possibility of his returning to sea duty, or will he get shore duty? If he was too badly injured he will probably get a discharge. From what we have been hearing and reading Iwo was no playground for a few days there." At this point, about an inch and a half of the letter was cut out before it resumed.

The third scrapbook in the series was created by Barbara (Tuttle) Sturm and focuses on her time at ISTC, with a variety of photographs and ephemeral content detailing her experiences. The photographs depict Barbara and her friends, as well as campus locations, such as Lawther Hall and the Commons. There are a few photographs of Barbara and Harold Sturm at the Spring Formal and the President's Reception for Grads (both May 1958). A majority of the photographs are labeled. The ephemera consists of performance and event programs; news clippings detailing a no-smoking rule for women on campus; campus directories; Barbara's counselor schedule; dance cards; and more. Items that were originally in envelopes were numbered and placed in folders for preservation purposes.

The second series, Photographs, contains photographs of family, friends, and Harold's WWII service. The photographs were either loose inside envelopes or in albums; these original bundles of photographs were kept together. The photograph albums were disassembled due to preservation concerns. The first grouping of photos focuses on Harold's time in Hawaii. The second batch are those Harold took of airplane nose art, probably at Hawaii's Hickam Air Force Base. The third grouping is comprised of miscellaneous photographs (some of which are labeled) and feature a mix of family and friends post-WWII. A few are from Harold's military service. Photograph subjects include: Ed Secor; Eva Sturm and her victory garden; and Harold and his fellow servicemen, including one in the Marianas dated February 1945. Additionally, there are a few photographs of Harold's father, Dallas, from the World War I (WWI) era. The next six photograph groupings were originally in albums. Album #1, "Dallas Sturm and Family Around WWI" includes a mix of photographs of men in WWI uniforms (including Dallas Sturm) and assorted images of people, farms, buildings, animals, and cars. Most of the photographs are not labeled. Album #2: dates from 1919 to 1921 and contains many photographs of Dallas and Eva Sturm. Some of the photographs are labeled with dates and captions. Album #3: "Distant Relatives, c. WWI," features various people and many of the photographs include a caption. Album #4: photographs of nature; family; houses (including the Sturm family home); and more. Album #5 contains images of Sturm relatives. A note in the family history that accompanied the collection explained that the relatives had primarily come from Europe to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s. Album #6: consists solely of photos of and from Elsie Lorine Colson (ISTC Class of 1945), that she sent to Harold while he was overseas. Harold occasionally mentioned Elsie in his letters. In addition, there are negatives featuring the family and Harold's WWII service as well as a group of photos labeled, "WWII, Passing Thru San Francisco to Pearl Harbor," that Harold took during his travels. Finally, there is one glass plate negative. A print of this photo may be found in Box 5, Folder 4.

Series 3, Artifacts, contains a variety of materials, primarily related to the Sturm family's military service. The first set of artifacts consists of Dallas Sturm's WWI uniform buttons and one spool of thread, totaling 13 items. The second grouping is a mix of Dallas and Harold Sturm's WWI and WWII military items, including medals, patches, and insignia. The final set contains a mix of items, including those from Dallas Sturm's military service and a Masonic pin. The inventory below goes into greater detail regarding the artifacts in each grouping.

Series 4, Ephemera, consists almost entirely of content from Harold Sturm's high school class reunions. Types of materials include photographs; attendees list; biographical information booklets; dance cards; and schedules. Also included are Harold's 1940 and 1940 high school yearbook, Red and Black. Both yearbooks had small name cards tucked into their pages. Additionally, there is one record titled "Folk Voices of Iowa: Collected and edited by Harry Oster.”

The final series, Military Records, includes a copy of a Civil War honorable discharge certificate for John Boyd, signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Boyd was a Sturm family distant relative and served in the Union Army for 150 days. In addition, Dallas Sturm's War Department Army Training School certificate and three other WWI documents are included.