Canines have been part of the human experience for quite some time now. They are among the first animals to be domesticated, though there are conflicting ideas about when, where and how this happened. Studies range in time from 10,000 to 30,000 years ago and in location from East Asia to the Middle East to […]
Every summer I can’t help but pour over every image from the William F. Gingrich Lantern Slide collection. These 1920s images in the Dunes area of northern Indiana scream lakeside vacation and look idyllic, even magical. It turns out that lantern slides were popular ways to teach and were a form of entertainment called Magic […]
Among local historians in Indianapolis, there’s one building that is discussed with more consistent fascination than almost any other. It’s not the State Capitol Building, Union Station or the Athanaeum. It’s the two-story outhouse that once stood in a backyard on Agnes Street, now University Avenue. In 1940, photographer Larry Foster photographed the outhouse, and […]
Today marks the two-year anniversary since we lost Indiana’s great Modernist architect, Evans Woollen. Woollen, a Yale University grad who studied under famed “Glass House” architect Philip Johnson, established his Indianapolis firm in 1955. Woollen’s earliest works consisted of mid-century modern residences, but he soon began exploring Brutalism with Clowes Memorial Hall, Barton Towers, and […]
The citizens of Rockville were not pleased. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture had promised them a mural for their post office, full of local character. In the summer of 1939, however, they received a modernist scene of jutting, protuberant hills and lumpy, misshapen cows. Rockville’s mural is one of my favorite […]
If you read my blog on a regular basis, you might recall a post from last year entitled “Celebrating the Beauty of Nature.” In it, I discuss three books with a “springtime” theme: Flower Guide: Wild Flowers East of the Rockies; Tree Guide: Trees East of the Rockies; and The Butterfly Guide: a Pocket Manual […]
When I am on the road with the Local History Services department, the folks who run local history organizations often ask, “What boxes, folders and supplies should we buy?” The question originates in the uncertainty surrounding not just how to house existing objects in the collection but also how to house new objects after they […]
Lake life is a term that has taken off recently in Instagram tags, clothing lines and even lifestyle TV shows. But lake life as we know it in Indiana has been around for well over a century. There is something special that draws us back to the water each summer, whether it’s boating, fishing, quality […]
I cataloged this book at the end of 2017, and I find it interesting for multiple reasons. Firstly, I enjoy the subject matter. Anything pertaining to the founding fathers and birth of our country brings out the history nerd in me. With more than 400 pages, several hundred engravings, the Constitution of the United States, […]
I like architecture – a lot. But do you know what really makes me happy in the archives? Finding building plans that never came to be. So when I stumbled across photographs of the original White River State Park model while processing the McGuire Photographs collection, I was mesmerized by how many design concepts were incorporated […]
