With LitCity Lore, we periodically feature a story from our new LitCity website, which maps unique Iowa City literary stories to the locations where writers lived, worked, gave readings, socialized and were inspired by the town.

This week we are highlighting a photo from the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa that shows Mildred Wirt Benson swan-diving into the Iowa River in Iowa City. Wirt Benson wrote and published the first twenty-three Nancy Drew stories under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

The back of the photo reads “Mildred Augustine Benson diving into Iowa River at Iowa City, Iowa in mid-1920’s.”

Explore this story and more at the LitCity website.