Traces Is Now Online

Since its first issue hit IHS members’ mailboxes, the quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History has delivered to its readers engaging narrative, shining a light on little-known lives and events from the 19th state’s past. Now, for the first time, the articles featured in the magazine from 1989 through 2013 are available online.

The 100 issues scanned by the IHS Preservation Imaging Department, with metadata entered by the Digitization Department, feature stories on the lives of Hoosier artists, writers, performers, soldiers, politicians, entrepreneurs, homemakers, reformers and naturalists. Some of these issues have been unavailable for many years, including the fall 1989 Traces visit to James Dean’s Indiana; the fall 1991 issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II by examining Indiana’s contribution to the war effort in the Pacific, in Europe and on the home front; and the winter 1992 magazine highlighting the wonders of the West Baden Springs Hotel.

“We are delighted that these stories will be more readily accessible to our longtime and new members, as well as to researchers and teachers in Indiana and across the country,” says Ray E. Boomhower, who has served as the magazine’s editor since 1999, taking over the post from Traces’s first editor, J. Kent Calder.

In addition to such notable Hoosiers as Eugene Debs, Madam C.J. Walker, James Whitcomb Riley, Wendell Willkie and Gene Stratton-Porter, those who explore the back issues of Traces will also come across the exploits of such obscure figures as Congresswoman Virginia Jenckes, historian John Brown Dillon, actor Monte Blue, activist Edna Martin and poet Max Ehrmann. The pieces have been produced over the years by nationally known writers such as David McCullough, William Styron and Stephen Ambrose, as well as such Traces mainstays as Nelson Price, Rachel Berenson Perry and Wes Gehring.

The collection, accessible at images.indianahistory.org, is searchable by keyword, subject, article titles, date of issue, volume/issue number and author name, or you can browse by the magazine’s cover. Search results can be sorted by title, subject or date.

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