We are fortunate to have many personal accounts in the Indiana Historical Society collections that detail the experiences of women in Indiana. Diaries and scrapbooks are among my favorite sources to research the perspectives, activities and careers of Hoosier women. One of my favorite women in the collection is pianist Bertha Jasper Mehrlich (1884-1962), because […]
When I was growing up, a local family had converted a barn loft into a basketball court. “Barnball” became a frequent afternoon excursion, with trick shots and heated competitions. Over the years I have found that basketball can be played almost anywhere in Indiana and that no matter the venue, competition is always heated. From […]
Bellevue Resort was a pretty little place situated where the canal and an old tow path crossed the Michigan Road, roughly where Butler University is now. Operating in the 1890’s, Bellevue was part of the Kneipp Association and employed many different water healing techniques for members, as well as a rest point along a bicycling […]
In 1979, a collecting effort was formalized at the Indiana Historical Society to address the concern for the lack of records available for doing research on the history of African Americans in the state. The purpose of that effort continues to be to collect, preserve and share information related to the history of Black Hoosiers. […]
As I wrote in Part 1, I recently learned about a clever conservation technique that turned out to be the solution to a complicated treatment problem I’ve been mulling over. Conservator Elsa Thyss at The Metropolitan Museum of Art developed a method for consolidating severely flaking emulsion on glass plate negatives using minimal moisture, which […]
It’s that time of the year when we reflect and start seeing things like new resolutions, countdowns and Top 10 lists. As an architectural historian, I keep thinking about the success of the recent Reclaim Indiana Avenue project, which launched a massive, public engagement campaign to challenge us to critically think about how community memory […]
We’ve kicked off our new Indianapolis bicentennial exhibit, You Are There 1920: Celebrate Indianapolis with a four-part program series on the history of redlining. Redlining is the discriminatory practice in which banks, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies refused or limited loans, mortgages, and insurance within specific geographic areas, particularly in older and city center neighborhoods, to Black […]
Butler University. Anyone who has spent any time in Indianapolis has heard about this wonderful educational establishment. Its christening name in 1850 was the North Western Christian University. Ovid Butler donated twenty acres of his own land downtown for the site of the university. Years before any of these events, around 1823, Ovid Butler was […]
Our digital collections have a new look! In early September our digital collection database, powered by OCLC’s CONTENTdm, underwent an upgrade to its user experience. Some of the improvements include enhanced viewing of images, more customization options such as maps, simplified display of information and much more. The look of our CONTENTdm site may have […]
I recently cataloged programs for Chautauqua gatherings in several cities throughout the state of Indiana: Delphi, Greensburg and Connersville. This inspired me to learn about the Chautauqua movement, which was popular in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and brought culture and entertainment to many communities. The Chautauqua Institution, originally […]
