Iron oxides and oxyhydroxides form via Fe3+ hydrolysis and polymerization in many aqueous environments, but the pathway from Fe3+ monomers to oligomers and then to solid phase nuclei is unknown. In this work, using combined X-ray, UV-vis, and Mössbauer spectroscopic approaches, we were able to identify and quantify the long-time sought ferric speciation over time during ferric oxyhydroxide formation in partially-neutralized ferric nitrate solutions ([Fe3+]=0.2M, 1.8