The start of the year tends to be quite chilly, thus it should come as no surprise that January celebrates national hat day. To me, January 15th calls to mind images of warm hats donned on a snowy day. But aside from serving to keep its wearers warm and comfortable, hats for many years were […]
A little over a year ago I sat in my office working when my coworker, archivist Barbara Quigley, appeared in my doorway. In her hand, she held several 5×7 photographs. She asked, “Do you know someone named Janice Steimel?” For a moment, my answer was no. I didn’t know Janice Steimel. And then it dawned […]
Here in central Indiana, January often brings us the cold, biting days of Winter. It’s no wonder that the National Day Calendar highlights both soup and hot tea this month. Tea month is celebrated thanks to The Tea Council founded in 1950, while soup has been celebrated since 1986 thanks to soup giant Campbell’s. It […]
Trying to search for a surname like Johns proved to be interesting. I had to work to determine the best terms and ways to remove terms to get the best search possible. In this instance, I ran a search for: Johns -Johnson -Johnston. This weeded out the more common surnames Johnson and Johnston and made […]
According to National Day Calendar, December is National Tie Month. Though the origin of the celebration is unknown, I have a guess. As neckties are often given as gifts, especially for Father’s Day and Christmas, it seems fitting that we should celebrate in one of those prime gift-giving months. While ties are more often thought […]
Years ago, in a newspaper search I came across an article about a string of burglaries in 1931, one was at an Indianapolis chili parlor owned by Philip Gomez. Researching Phillip’s life has initiated multiple discoveries, and he has served as a teaching tool on of how we have statistically defined Latinos throughout history in […]
I love November – it’s one of my favorite months of the year. The temperature is starting to cool down meanwhile some people are preparing for Thanksgiving and observing National Indigenous Peoples Day. November has many fun and interesting holidays like Saxophone Day. Saxophones are popular for use in jazz music. Indiana has produced many […]
My colleague Suzanne shared another surname with me, Maxwell. I started digging and quickly found several references to that name in the IHS collections. The search took a little longer because this surname is also a fairly common given name. I found 13 unique Maxwells pictured within the collections, a selection of those available in […]
Did you know that between October and November 1930, architects and engineers rotated a building in downtown Indianapolis without disrupting business inside? What is historically known as the Indiana Bell Building has gone through quite a few name changes throughout its history. Established in 1883, the Central Union Telephone Company of Indianapolis was one of […]
While Aviation has a much longer history than many consider (think balloons, gliders, and other ‘flying machines’), the most common vehicle in aviation history is probably the airplane. I could certainly look at the IHS collections and pull up images of some of those other forms, but in looking at the digital collection, planes, planes, […]
