Author Archives: Charlie McAtee

Visualizing History: Photographer Appreciation Month

This month we celebrate our appreciation for photographers. Whether amateur or professional, photographers are important to the historical record. At the Indiana Historical Society, we have millions of photographs representing many photographers. It was a struggle to decide which photographer’s collections to highlight. Here are the ones that I decided to share: Cephas M. Huddleston […]

October 14, 1851 – 174 Years Ago: Hoosier Women’s Fight Began

Americans began to call for women’s suffrage as early as 1850, 70 years before the 19th Amendment granted white women the right to vote, and 115 years before women of color won the right to vote with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Do you know when Hoosiers began their participation in the women’s suffragist […]

Region Rats Unite … Or Do We?

You can take the ‘Rat’ out of the ‘Region,’ but you can’t take the ‘Region’ out of the ‘Rat.’ I was in college before I really learned what it meant to be a ‘Region Rat,’ despite having lived there my entire life. As one of my colleagues pointed out, though, the ‘Rat’ moniker supposedly stems […]

Are We Related?: Cheek

Welcome back to our monthly installment of “Are We Related?.” This time we’re exploring the Cheek family. My colleague Tamara provided some links to this surname, specifically noting her grandfather, Gail Austin Cheek. While seeking out Cheeks in the IHS collection, I came across a couple of options, but one really stood out. In our […]

Celebration Days in September

September is probably best known for a celebration like Labor Day. Continuing our National Days blog series, I’ve highlighted two other day celebrations in the month as illustrated by materials from the IHS digital collection. In 2022, the American Hotel and Lodging Association along with National Day Calendar began celebrating September 1st as National Hotel […]

County Extension Agents during World War II

In the Fall/Winter 2023 issue of Connections magazine, available through the IHS Member Login tab, Purdue University Extension specialist Frederick Whitford writes of the beginning of the Purdue Extension Agent program and the agents’ work through the Great Depression and World War II. The article is based on a book Whitford authored about the same […]

Newest IHS Press Release Highlights the Lost-to-Memory People, Places and Culture of Indianapolis

The newest book from the Indiana Historical Society (IHS) Press, “An Unusual Urban History of Indianapolis” by Connie J. Zeigler, details the unsung, underappreciated or lost-to-memory people, places and culture of the Hoosier state’s capital city. Throughout the book, Zeigler takes columns that appeared monthly in the Indianapolis Urban Times newspaper between November 2007 and […]

A Quick Primer on Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month

Latino and Hispanic Heritage month (September 15- October 15) brings up a lot of questions and retrospection on what it means to be Latino or Hispanic in the United States. Here are some common questions and insights based on years of presentations and Q&A panels. Background Information About Hispanic Heritage Month: It first began as […]

Celebrate Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month at the Indiana Historical Society

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 9, 2024) – The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) is celebrating the rich history of Latino and Hispanic culture with a variety of events, activities and celebrations during Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 14-Oct. 12, at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center. For four weeks, visitors can view and learn about […]