Iowa State University

Iowa Stste University Campanile

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Margaret MacDonald Stanton, wife of Iowa State's dean Edgar W. Stanton, died in 1895. He sought to create an appropriate memorial to her service as the college's first Dean of Women and decided to donate a chime of ten bells that would be placed in campanile to be built on the campus. Stanton agreed to buy the bells if the college would built a suitable tower and maintain the instrument, which they agreed to do. Construction of the campanile began in August 1897 and was completed in 1899. The college used unspent funds from earlier appropriations by the legislature to pay for the tower. The college was successful in securing an exemption from the import duty on the bells, one of the few such exemptions that passed congress.

The ten bells were cast by the John Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough, England and arrived in October 1899. The chime was first played on February 20, 1900 and is considered to be the first scientifically tuned chime of bells installed anywhere in the world.

Edgar Stanton died in 1920 and his second wife, Julia Wentch Stanton, offered $24,000 to the college to to purchase and install twenty-six additional bells in the campanile, converting the chimes of ten bells to a
carillon of thirty-six bells, this to be known as the Edgar W. and Margaret MacDonald Stanton Memorial Carillon of Bells. Her offer was accepted and the bells ordered from the Taylor Foundry.

Anton Brees played at the carillon’s inauguration on October 6, 1929. In 1956, 13 additional Taylor bells were added and a 50th bell was installed in 1967.

References
1897 "A Fitting Memorial," The Algona Republican, July 7, 1897, Page 1.
The largest and finest Campanile tower in the United States will be erected this summer on the campus of the Iowa State College here. A short time ago the wife of Prof. E, W. Stanton died. Together they had been connected almost a life time with the college faculty. After her death Prof. Stanton offered to donate to the college the finest chime of bells in the United States if the college trustees would find a place to hang them. The clock in the tower will strike the quarters, halves, and each hour the chime will play a chord. The chimes are so arranged that 3,000 pieces can be played. The tower will cost $6,000 and the cost of the chime is yet unknown, but will not be less than $10,000, and may be twice that amount. The tower will be 110 feet in height and 16x16 feet at the base, with a winding staircase to the top. The contract for the chime of bells, already let, calls for "a better chime than any previously erected in the United States."

1898 "Free Entry of Certain Bells," H.rp 1675, 55th Congress, 3d Session, December 15, 1898.
The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 10398) providing for the entry free of customs duties of certain bells presented by Edwin M. Stanton to the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa, recommend that the same be passed.

1899 Eighteenth Biennial Report of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts for the years 1898-99, December 1, 1899.
Page 80: At the time when the code went into effect there was in the state treasury an undrawn balance of the annual appropriations to the college of $9,575.11. This balance had been allowed to accumulate by the board to enable the college to erect a tower for the chimes and clock and make other needed improvements and repairs. The attorney -general rendered an opinion to the auditor of state in which he held that the new code in repealing former statutes deprived the board of trustees of authority to issue requisitions for this balance. The matter of granting them such authority was presented to the legislature and an act passed restoring to the college the amount in question. After paying for the erection of the tower $6,671.48 there remained a balance of $2,903.63 which was used for general repairs and improvements.

1899 Chap. 157 An Act Providing for the entry, free of customs duties, of certain bells presented by Edwin M. Stanton to the Iowa Agricultural College, of Ames, Iowa, Fifty-fifth Congress, Session III.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to instruct the collector of customs at the port of importation to admit to entry, free of customs duties, one certain set of bells presented by Edwin M. Stanton to the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. Approved, February 15, 1899

1899 "Chimes for Ames," The Minneapolis Journal, October 19, 1899, Page 3.
Proposed Memorial for Mrs. Stanton Arrives From England.

1928 "Seek to Import Bells to Ames Free From Duty," The Des Moines Register, December 20, 1928, Page 20.

1929 "Will Dedicate New College Carillon," Ames Daily Tribune, September 12, 1929, Page 1.

1929 "16,000 Hear Anton Brees Recital Sun.," Ames Daily Tribune, October 7, 1929, Page 1. | Part 2 |

1957 "The Stanton Memorial Carillon at Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa," by Ira Schroeder, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America 10-1: (June 1957)

1980 The Iowa State University Campus and its Buildings 1859-1979, by H. Summerfield Day
Pages 190-194: Campanile

1988 "A New and Expanded History of the Edgar W. and Margaret MacDonald Stanton Memorial Carillon," by Ira Schroeder, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America 37: (1988)

2000 History of Iowa State's Bells | Campanile |

Edgar W. and Margaret MacDonald Stanton Memorial Carillon

Campanile (Iowa State University)