Category Archives: Collections and Library

Digital Diaries: Not Your Typical Civil War Letter

Life is always interesting in the Digitization Department! We discover so many historic treasures that remain relevant today and we get to share them with you via our Digital Collections. This time the treasure is a letter written by Captain David Enoch Beem of 14th Indiana Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War. I had already […]

From the Cataloger’s Desk: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The IHS library recently received a large addition to one of our serial collections: … Annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration …, asouvenir program issued by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Kevin Barry Division #3, Indianapolis. Our holdings now represent the years 1950-2016, with only a small handful of exceptions. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was […]

From the Cataloger’s Desk: Planning the Perfect Wedding (1950s Style)

To celebrate all the marriage proposals, wedding ceremonies and anniversaries that will be taking place this Valentine’s Day, I present the Wedding Embassy Yearbook, published by L.S. Ayres and Company in 1950. Although times have changed quite a bit, this book must have been an invaluable resource for brides-to-be 75 years ago. Department stores reigned […]

Riding in Hitler’s Car

My mom has worked at IHS for more than 30 years with the image collections. Conversations while driving downtown or dinnertime discussions often recalled stories from IHS collections to my mom’s mind. Some have to do with buildings now long gone but still seemingly in living memory because of images, and others have to do […]

From the Cataloger’s Desk: Signatures and Science

In the spring of 2012, I graduated from Indiana University’s Master of Library Science program with a specialization in rare books and manuscripts librarianship. The courses were fascinating, and now, I am lucky to put my education to good use as the cataloger of Printed Collections here at the IHS library. I recently cataloged a […]

An Intern’s Perspective on Larry Foster

I had no idea what to expect upon joining the Archives and Library team here at the Indiana Historical Society this fall, other than I would be working on the Larry Foster Collection. Now, more than two months in, I could not imagine my life without Larry. From my project this fall, I have been […]

From the Cataloger’s Desk: Celebrating Indiana Designers

Commercial Article is published by Commercial Artisan, an Indianapolis-based graphic design studio founded by brothers Jamesand Jon Sholly. Issues of their visually stunning publication highlight designers from Indiana, as well as their work. Those held by the IHS library feature Gene and Jackie Lacy, Fred Bower, Avriel Shull, Leslie Ayres, Norman Norell, Walter Dorwin Teague, […]

From the Cataloger’s Desk: Calling all race fans!

The IHS library was fortunate to receive issues of the Indianapolis Speedrome’s Pit Board, whichwere recentlycatalogedandmadeavailable to patrons. Our holdings represent 36 years of racing action (1977 to 2013) and include more than 800 weekly publications. These were distributed during the racing season and offered results, schedules, scoreboards and stories from the track. Other materials, […]

Figuring Out a Foster Photograph

Getting the identifications of images right is something we take seriously. Sometimes it’s more difficult than others. Sometimes it seems impossible. We learn to live with the fact that many people don’t label family photographs many landscapes are impossible to pin down, and we can’t memorize the business districts of every town in Indiana. We […]