From The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections, Fall/Winter 2017. To receive Connections twice a year, join IHS and enjoy this and other member benefits. Back issues of Connections are available through the Basile History Market. Photo courtesy of Randy Mills. Recovering and Reconstructing the Lost Story of My Father’s World War II Adventures “I am so homesick for Horse Creek.” […]
Virginia Dill McCarty is best known as the first woman who was appointed and served a full four-year term as U.S. Attorney. Recommended by Senator Birch Bayh in February 1977, she was appointed to the Southern District of Indiana by President Jimmy Carter in June 1977 and served until 1981. Her collection reflects her activities […]
Urban renewal. Revitalization. Skyscrapers. It is rare that a collection comes along that so thoroughly documents the changes in the downtown Indianapolis landscape over 50 years. The Joseph and Georgia McGuire Photographs narrates this municipal transformation – overlapping chronologically with the W.H. Bass Photo Co. and the Larry Foster photography collections – and continues in […]
Make a Donation Curious about the business of beauty culture, the latest in hair care technology, and the people who were trained in Walker Beauty Culture methods in the middle part of the 20th century? We are pleased to announce that we processed an addition to the Madam C.J. Walker Papers. This collection addition fills […]
Indiana’s legendary musicians and songwriters Bill and Gloria Gaither are featured in a new Destination Indiana journey chronicling their faith, family and career. Both Bill and Gloria were greatly influenced by their families and their Christian upbringings. Bill Gaither was raised in Alexandria, where he started music lessons as a child and became fascinated with […]
Famed for her dry wit, frosty smile, sparkling eyes and raspy voice, Marjorie Main was a popular character actress who, unlike many females in Hollywood, gained the majority of her success after she turned 50. Main was born in February 1890 in Acton and was given the name Mary Tomlinson. She eventually changed her name […]
Colonel Eli Lilly began a new business in Indianapolis in 1876 manufacturing drugs for wholesale distribution – a business that became Indiana’s most successful start-up. A Civil War veteran who saw fierce combat and overcame deep personal loss, he applied his past experiences and entrepreneurial abilities to successfully establish Eli Lilly and Company with his […]
In one of our most moving You Are There exhibits to date, talk to Italian prisoners of war in the chapel they built at Camp Atterbury – their home away from home. In 1943, approximately 3,000 Italian POWs were held at Atterbury during World War II. That it held prisoners of war is surprising to […]
It’s safe to conclude the Hoosher and Hoosier nickname adopted by Indiana residents and for them by their nearby neighbors was derived from the dialect term (probably traceable from England) not uncommon among southern immigrants to Indiana and the Ohio Valley several years before [John] Finley arrived and penned his famous poem [The Hoosier’s Nest]. […]
Before the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was completed in 1909, a national balloon race was held there in June to generate revenue and interest in auto races. Thirty-five hundred paying customers were inside the track, while outside, 40,000 spectators watched the balloon race for free, causing a huge traffic jam. In August, the track held inaugural […]
