Category Archives: IHS Press

Painter of the Dunes: A Life of Frank Virgil Dudley

Once his photographer brother introduced him to the sand dunes of Indiana and vicinity in 1911, Frank Virgil Dudley devoted the rest of his creative life to painting landscapes of the area’s stunning scenery and unique diversity, becoming one of the state’s preeminent artists. His well-earned titles of “Seer of the Dunes” and “Painter of […]

An Examined Life: The John Mutz Story

How does a historian whose work focused on those “boring railroad presidents” end up collaborating on a memoir of a living Hoosier businessman, philanthropist, and politician? Some would say the answer was dumb luck. Others would argue it was fate. But it surely was both memorable and invaluable to my development as a historian, writer, […]

“The Last Enemy is Destroyed”-May Wright Sewall and Spiritualism

A century ago an Indianapolis publishing firm, Bobbs-Merrill Company, released a volume that it publicized as the “most talked of book of the day.” Anton Scherrer, a columnist for the Indianapolis Times, said that nothing “rocked the foundations of Indianapolis quite as much” as had the appearance of the publication, titled Neither Dead nor Sleeping. […]

Q&A With Anita Morgan: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Indiana

Prohibiting states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on sex, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and formally ratified on August 26, 1920. To commemorate the centennial of women winning the right to vote, the IHS Press recently published “We Must Be Fearless”: The […]

Losing the Vote, Winning the Election

History Matters is a blog series where we’ll be talking about the things you’re not supposed to discuss at the dinner table – things that may make some people uncomfortable. These pieces of our history are there if you look but might not be top of mind or in a textbook. We often think of history on a larger scale, […]