On February 25, 1847, the First General Assembly of the State of Iowa established the State University of Iowa at Iowa City. The law provided for a 15-member Board of Trustees. With little initial financial support, the Board's early business was confined to land selection for the new institution. By 1855, the first year of classes, however, the Board became fully engaged in the business of managing a small but growing public university. In 1870 the Board of Trustees was reorganized as the Board of Regents.

The State University of Iowa Board of Trustees and Board of Regents records, 1847-1909, document oversight activity of the University's governing boards prior to the state's reorganization of its Regents institutions in 1909. Prior to that time, each of Iowa's public institutions of higher learning was governed locally by an autonomous board, independent of other institutions. Establishment of the Iowa State Board of Education in 1909 (later re-named the Iowa State Board of Regents in 1954) brought a coordinated, state level of authority to the institutions at Iowa City, Ames, and Cedar Falls.