Friends of the Indiana State Archives Annual Meeting at the Indiana Medical History Museum
The 19th annual meeting of the Friends of the Indiana State Archives will be held on Tuesday, April 14, at noon at the Indiana Medical History Museum in Indianapolis.

Dr. James A. Glass, Director of the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, will present Lew and Harry Wallace Build a Dream Apartment Building. His presentation will be about the Blacherne located in downtown Indianapolis.

The meeting will begin with a buffet luncheon. A brief business meeting will precede the main presentation. Attendees may stay for a tour of the museum following the program.

The cost for the luncheon is $15 per person, payable at the meeting. 

Seating is limited. Reservations should be made by Friday, April 10, by calling (317) 232-3694 or e-mailing Connie Rendfeld at carendfeld@aol.com. 

Hard Times Bean Supper from the Greentown Historical Society
This event will be held on April 15 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Community Building at the Howard County 4-H Fairgrounds in Greentown.

Taxes are due – so come and have soup beans, ham and cornbread for just 25 cents per person. Free will donations will also be accepted.

For more information, please call (765) 628-3800. 

Sheridan Historical Society Annual Dinner Featuring Indiana Pioneer Society Presentation
This event will be held on Thursday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Sheridan Community Center located at 300 E. 6th St. in Sheridan.

Bob Everitt from the Indiana Pioneer Society will inform local audiences about the Indiana Pioneer Society. Everitt is past president of the Indiana Pioneer Society and now serves as secretary. He is chairman of the President Benjamin Harrison Foundation and active with the Propylaeum Historic Foundation, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana and the Indiana Historical Society. Everitt is vice president and trust counsel of M&I Trust Company, Indianapolis.

Since its founding in 1916, The Society of Indiana Pioneers has remained true to its mission: “To honor the memory and the work of the pioneers of Indiana.” Activities of the organization include supporting history clubs for school-age Hoosier children, erecting and maintaining historical markers around the state, granting fellowships to graduate students researching early Indiana history, offering trips to sites of historical interest in Indiana and surrounding states, and maintaining genealogical records submitted by members.

For a reservation, which includes dinner and program for $25 per person, please call Ginny Tackitt at (317) 758-0643, Donna Jessup at (317) 758-5689 or Robert Young at (317) 758-1311. 

The deadline for reservations is Apr. 10.

The Smothers Brothers at the Honeywell Center
This event will be held on Friday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Honeywell Center in Wabash.

It was five decades ago that Tom and Dick Smothers first took stage together, and comedy was forever changed.  Many duos have had success, but none as enduring as the Smothers Brothers. Their cutting-edge humor has not only been ahead of its time but has remained timeless as well.

Tickets are $15, $38, $48 and $75, and can be purchased at the box office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or by calling (260) 563-1102 or *tix from your Centennial Wireless phone.  Tickets are also available at http://www.honeywellcenter.org/.

The Victorian Vaudeville Variety Show at the President Benjamin Harrison Home
This Victorian Theatre by Candlelight performance will be held April 17, 18, 24, 25 and May 1 and 2, at 8 p.m., with an additional matinee on Sunday, May 3, at 2 p.m. at the presidential mansion located at 1230 N. Delaware St. in Indianapolis.

“Ridiculous, varied, musical and fun” describes the Spring 2009 presentation of the theatre at the Harrison Home, according to Donna Wing, the creative director. 

The VTBC cast will present the following five dramatic pieces bolstered with live period music:

• Arabian Nights, a story of developing romance written by David Ives
• The Six Great Immortals, a monologue delivered to the Monday Afternoon Browning and Croquet Literary Society
• Box and Cox, a classic British farce by John M. Morton
• He, She and It, a story about a newlywed man who forgets his first wedding anniversary, written by William Muskerry
• The Anatomical Tragedian, a piece that invites audience participation

Audience members will rotate through each of three rooms of the Presidential mansion, enjoying mirth and music within the Victorian atmosphere of the newly renovated home.  Candlelight and other ambient lighting will provide a unique atmosphere, drawing the audience into each of the five performances.

The cost is $18 per person or $15 for members, seniors and students. Reservations are required and can be made by calling (317) 631-1888.

For more information about the President Benjamin Harrison Home, plese visit http://www.presidentbenjaminharrison.org/.

Charles Gordone Indiana State Historical Marker to be Dedicated in Elkhart
A public dedication ceremony for an Indiana state historical marker will be held on Saturday, April 18, at 11 a.m. at the Elkhart Public Library located at 300 S. Second St. in Elkhart.

The state historical marker commemorates the life and work of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Charles Gordone. The text for the state marker entitled "Charles Gordone” reads “Born in Ohio, 1925, Gordone grew up in Elkhart and graduated from Elkhart High School in 1944. In the 1950s, he moved to New York City where he worked as an actor, director, and playwright. During the 1960s, he acted in the award-winning off-Broadway play, The Blacks, and worked to ensure more opportunities for blacks in the entertainment industry. In 1970, Gordone won national acclaim as the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for No Place to Be Somebody, also the first off-Broadway play to win the award. In the 1980s, Gordone advocated integrating minority actors into the casts of classic dramas. In 1987, he joined the Texas A&M University faculty. He died in 1995.”

The public is invited to attend the dedication ceremony for this Indiana historical marker that commemorates Gordone’s contributions to theater as an actor, director and playwright.

State historical markers commemorate significant individuals, organizations, places and events in Indiana history. These markers help communities throughout the state promote, preserve and present their history for the education and enjoyment of residents and tourists of all ages. For more than 90 years the Indiana Historical Bureau, an agency of the State of Indiana, has been marking Indiana history. Since 1947, the marker format has been the large roadside marker, which has the familiar dark blue background with gold lettering and the outline of the state of Indiana at the top. There are approximately 500 of these markers across the state.

For more information about this marker, the state Historical Marker Program and other resources about Indiana, please visit www.IN.gov/history or call (317) 232-2537. 

2009 Museum of the Soldier Annual Meeting
This meeting will be held on Saturday, April 18, at 5:30 p.m. at Bear Creek Farms in Portland, Ind. 

The speaker will be Cpt Guy Gruters USAF (ret.) a POW in North Vietnam 1967 thru 1973. Gruters graduated from the Air Force Academy with a BS in Engineering Science and received a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University. After Pilot Training and Fighter Gunnery School, he volunteered for Vietnam and served six years in Vietnam, including more than five as a POW. He completed more than 400 combat missions as a Forward Air Controller (FAC), first for the 173rd Airborne Brigade flying O-1 aircraft and then flying F-100s for the "MISTY FAST FACS" flying over North Vietnam.

He was shot down twice and captured the second time, on December 20, 1967, spending the next 5 years and four months in communist POW camps, including the infamous Hanoi Hilton. His awards include two Silver Stars, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star for valor, a Presidential Unit Citation, a Distinguished Unit Citation, 20 Air Medals and other awards. Guy joined Eastern Airlines as a pilot, flying DC-9s and Boeing 727s, and retired as a Captain in 1991. During this time, Guy and his wife Sandy were blessed with seven children, two before Vietnam and five after. Guy became a successful international account representative for IBM and later served as president of PC Software Systems. He is now a writer/editor and speaks professionally about his POW experience. Guy currently resides in Minster, Ohio, with his wife of 45 years.  His programs are exciting and powerful. He has a unique, pro-military, pro-patriotism, pro-God message that is suitable for all Americans.

The cost is $15 for members or $20 for nonmembers and includes the meal and program.

Reservations can be made by calling (260) 729-7017 or by mailing Museum of the Soldier, P.O. Box 518, Portland, IN 47371. The deadline for reservations is Tuesday, April 14.

Spring Basket Silent Auction at the Scott County Heritage Center and Museum
The annual Scott County Heritage Center and Museum Spring Silent Auction will officially open on Monday, April 20, at the museum located at 1050 S. Main St. in Scottsburg.

Gardening tools, flowering baskets, prints, paintings, dishes, theme baskets and many other items will be available to the highest bidder. The auction will last about four weeks, concluding at 4 p.m. during the museum’s Springfest event on May 16.

There is no admission charge for the museum. The facility is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.  All proceeds from the auction benefit the museum. High bidders for each item will be notified by telephone and are not required to be present at the close of the auction. Items will be available for pickup during regular museum hours.

To donate items for the silent auction or for more information, please call (812) 752-1050. The Scott County Heritage Center and Museum is operated by Preservation Alliance, Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, so donations may be considered tax deductible.

Daisy Day Celebration at the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead
This event will be held on Saturday, April 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead located at 2920 E. 10th St. in Bloomington.

Bloomington Restorations, Inc. invites visitors to celebrate spring at the annual Daisy Day celebration at the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead. Daisy Day is held in honor of Daisy Garton, who donated the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead to BRI to be used as a community resource for historic preservation and education. Daisy grew up on the farm and spent many years teaching music to children in Monroe County. 

During Daisy Day, visitors will have the opportunity to tour the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead, including the garden plot which will be planted with heirloom flowers, fruits and vegetables. At 2 p.m., there will be a presentation of stories, poems and projects from the Sisters of the Flying Fountain Pen, a group of young writers who meet weekly at the Farmstead. The girls have been learning about strong women of Monroe County and reflecting on how they can use their talents to work for a better community and world. The presentation of the girls’ writing is made possible by a partnership between BRI and Writing Unlimited and a grant from the Indiana Humanities Council. 

Refreshments will be served, and there will be craft activities for children throughout the celebration, including decorating flower pots and planting daisy seeds. Please join us to celebrate Daisy, her vision for historic preservation education and the creativity of the Sisters of the Flying Fountain Pen.

Daisy Day is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact BRI at (812) 336-0909 or bri@bloomingtonrestorations.org.

Springfest at the Scott County Heritage Center and Museum
This event will be held on Saturday, May 16, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum located at 1050 S. Main St. in Scottsburg.

Activities include a vintage tractor and farm machinery show, a silent auction, food and craft vendors, a pie baking contest, prizes and more. Registration for the vintage tractor show is open to any and all vintage tractors or farm machinery. The registration cost is $5 per entry and includes a complimentary breakfast and dash plaque. 

Two awards will be available for pies entered into the baking contest: $30 for best pie and $15 for most unique pie. Slices of each pie entered will be sold at the event as a fundraiser for the museum. A maximum of five pies per person may be entered. 

Food, arts and crafts and gardening vendors are welcome at the event. There will be no registration or setup fees charged, but vendors are asked to donate fifteen percent of their proceeds for the day to the museum. Vendors will also need to supply their own tables, chairs, canopies, etc. 

The event is free to the public.

Anyone interested in participating, either in one of the listed activities or as a volunteer, should contact the museum as soon as possible at (812) 752-1050.

Historic Landmarks Foundation Back to the Future: A Mid-Century Modern Home Tour
This tour features five houses built between 1955 and 1964 and will be held on Saturday, May 30, from 1 to 6 p.m. in West Lafayette.

As one of several events to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana partners with the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation to offer a look inside West Lafayette examples of the classic modern residence of a half-century ago.

Boxy modernist houses and low-slung ranch homes were the height of hip when they were built, and they still have a cool factor today. They've been around long enough that some qualify as historic structures – a point that sparks debate and causes us to view them in a new light.

In 1950s and 1960s America, many people considered Victorian architecture dated and ugly. As a result, countless architectural gems were lost to the wrecking ball. Historic Landmarks Foundation and its affiliate Wabash Valley Trust seek to protect Modernist Indiana architecture from a similar fate and foster appreciation for the Modernist style. Back to the Future is staged with support from the Lafayette-West Lafayette Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Back to the Future: A Mid-Century Modern Home Tour showcases five houses in and near the Happy Hollow subdivision. The area is noted for its admirable collection of mid-century architecture, the result of a post-war residential building boom created when Purdue University's faculty and staff swelled to accommodate returning veterans on the GI bill.

Four of the five tour homes represent the work of one architect. Robert Smith, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who had 20 commissions in West Lafayette. The Smith-designed homes on tour feature his signature details – integration of the structure with nature, expansive glass walls, the use of natural materials and louvered openings to enhance ventilation. 

Lafayette architect Elliott Brenner designed the fifth tour home in 1963 for Purdue agriculture professor John Hicks, his wife Swiftie and their seven kids. Sara Strickler lives there now. The house retains its original freestanding fireplace, doors, light fixtures and hardware. "I had thought I would eventually replace the kitchen, but I've reconsidered. The kitchen is laid out so well," Strickler says, "and the original cabinetry is now classic and retro." 

Residences open for the May 30 Back to the Future tour include:

• George Benda, 300 Hollowood Drive
• Janet and Arnold Sweet, 304 Hollowood Drive
• Dick and Connie Grace, 2175 Tecumseh Park Lane
• Sara Strickler, 132 Mohican
• Sid and Phyllis Kilsheimer, 1607 Western Drive

Maps will be available at each tour home and a shuttle will circulate among the sites. Ticket holders may drive on their own among the homes or park and ride a shuttle that departs from Redeemer Lutheran Church located at 510 Lindberg Ave. Maps, restrooms and refreshments will be available at the church.

Tickets are $12 per person in advance and $15 on the day of the tour at each tour home. Call Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana at (317) 639-4534 or (800) 450-4534, or visit http://www.historiclandmarks.org/ for ticket sale locations.

National Trust Preservation Fund Grants
The next round of the National Trust Preservation Fund grants (formerly known as the Preservation Services Fund grants) will close on June 1.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation says this will be the final grant round for its fiscal year. Providing dollar-for-dollar matching seed money to nonprofit organizations and public agencies, the funds can be used for a variety of preservation projects such as feasibility studies or historic structures reports for endangered buildings and sites, landscape research and planning, fund-raising and media campaigns, and interpretation and heritage education activities.

For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/find-funding/grants/.

For questions, contact wro@nthp.org.

NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Grants
The Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program supports projects that provide an essential foundation for scholarship, education and public programming in the humanities.

Thousands of libraries, archives, museums and historical organizations across the country maintain important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, electronic records, and digital objects. Funding from this program strengthens efforts to extend the life of such materials and make their intellectual content widely accessible, often through the use of digital technology. Awards are also made to create various reference resources that facilitate use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.

The maximum award is $350,000 for up to three years. Successful applicants will be awarded a grant in outright funds, federal matching funds or a combination of the two, depending on the applicant's preference and the availability of NEH funds.

The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2009, for projects beginning May 2010.

For full details and application instructions, please visit http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/HCRR.html.


NEH Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants
The Division of Preservation and Access of the National Endowment for the Humanities will be accepting applications for grants in the Research and Development grant competition.

Eligible projects may include efforts to:

• Develop technical standards, best practices and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections.
• Explore more effective scientific and technical methods of preserving humanities collections.
• Develop automated procedures and computational tools to integrate humanities data in disparate online resources.
• Investigate and test new ways of providing digital access to humanities materials that are not amenable to standard modes of digitization.

NEH especially encourages applications that address the following areas:

• Digital Preservation: how to preserve digital humanities materials, including those for which no analog counterparts exist.
• Recorded Sound and Moving Image Collections: how to preserve and increase access to the record of the twentieth century contained in these formats.
• Preventive Conservation: how to protect and slow the deterioration of humanities collections through the use of sustainable preservation strategies.

The new guidelines, which include sample proposal narratives, may be found at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/PARD.html.

The application receipt deadline of July 30, 2009, is for projects beginning May 2010. All applications submitted to NEH must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov; see guidelines for details. Program staff will read draft proposals submitted six weeks before the deadline.

A list of recent Research and Development awards (2005 to 2009) is available by e-mailing preservation@neh.gov. Prospective applicants seeking further information are encouraged to contact the Division at (202) 606-8570 or preservation@neh.gov.

2009 Louisville Travel Show Seeking “Day-cation” and Weekend Getaway Exhibitors
The Louisville Travel Experience will be held Sept. 26 and 27 at the Kentucky Exposition Center and is currently seeking “day-cation” and weekend getaway exhibitors to present their destinations at the event.

Over 10,000 travel-specific consumers are expected to attend. Admission is free to public.

A “day-cation" is a destination or activity that one can easily get to, enjoy and return home in the same day, like a mini vacation. Weekend Getaways might include driving distance resorts, bed and breakfasts or destinations.

For more information, please visit http://www.louisvilletravelshow.com/.

Collections Internship at the Alaska Museum of Natural History
This internship opportunity is available for Summer 2009. The intern will assist the Collections Manager in the ongoing project of labeling and cataloging the collections. The collection of approximately 10,000 items includes geology, biology, ethnographic, and paleontology specimens. This internship provides an excellent opportunity to gain experience in museum registration practices and procedures.

Requirements:

• Attention to detail
• Computer experience
• Museum or natural history background preferred

The time commitment is for 10 to 12 weeks with flexible start date between mid-May through mid-June at 30 to 40 hours per week

Compensation includes room and board and a $100 stipend per week.

The application deadline is April 25, 2009.

Please mail a cover letter and resume with three references to:
Alaska Museum of Natural History
Attn: Collections Department
201 N. Bragaw St.
Anchorage, AK 99508
Or e-mail to: npcallina@yahoo.com.

Museums and the Web Conference Papers Now Available Online
This year's papers are now available at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/speakers/index.html. All the papers from past Museums and the Web conferences are also available. See the full bibliography at http://conference.archimuse.com/researchForum.

Social Butterflies Can Raise Money Article
This article by Michele Donohue is available from the Nonprofit Times at http://www.nptimes.com/09Apr/090401SR.pdf.

Giving: It’s All About Age Article
This article is available at http://reachadvisors.typepad.com/museum_audience_insight/2009/04/giving-its-all-about-age.html.