Civil War Encampment and Exhibit at the Monroe County History Center

For more information,
please visit www.monroehistory.org
or contact the Monroe County History Center
at (812) 332-2517.

Return to Top

AASLH Online Conference Registration Deadline Extended
The American Association for State and Local History is extending the registration deadline for the first AASLH Online Conference to Aug. 17.

Gather your staff around the computer and use this opportunity for group training. This year, AASLH is offering an Online Conference in conjunction with our annual meeting. If you cannot join us in Indianapolis, you can still be a part of our annual meeting by registering for our online conference which will take place on Aug. 27 and 28.

Registration for the Online Conference will include six sessions, moderated "happy hours" and featured speakers.

Visit www.aaslh.org/online09 for a full schedule of online activities. The scheduled sessions will be presented live to the online audience and feature interactive chat and question functions.

The cost for the conference is $95 for members and $160 for nonmembers. Preregistration is required.

To register for the Online Conference, go to www.aaslh.org/anmeeting and click on "Register for Online Conference." Call (615) 320-3203 or e-mail jackson@aaslh.org if you have any questions.

Return to Top

Please confim event specifics with sponsoring organization, especially if traveling any distance.

Tea Dance under the Dome at West Baden Springs Hotel
This event will be held on Sunday, Aug. 9, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the West Baden Springs Hotel located at 8538 West Baden Ave. in West Baden Springs.

Today, dancers compete on television in barely-there costumes and millions vote on their favorites. In the ‘teens and ‘20s, respectable people kept their zeal for dancing under tight control. They couldn’t go to dance halls – much too scandalous. Instead, they indulged the craze for the Tango, Black Bottom and Charleston at afternoon tea dances – ruled acceptable for polite society – in swank hotels.

Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana sponsors a return to the once-spicy daylight tradition, hosting a tea dance under the famous dome at the West Baden Springs Hotel. Louisville’s 17-piece Moonlight Big Band provides the music, good for listeners and spectators as well as dancing.

The ticket price of $45 includes tea and finger sandwiches in addition to the music (cocktails are available for charge). To make a tea dance reservation, call Historic Landmarks Foundation’s French Lick-West Baden office at (866) 571-8687.

For those who want a deeper experience, Historic Landmarks offers a trip to the tea dance via motorcoach from Indianapolis on Aug. 9 and 10. As the coach travels south through Bloomington, a windshield tour highlights many buildings restored by the Cook family who are responsible for the transformation of the French Lick and West Baden Springs hotels. The group will visit two landmark Bloomington houses built by the prominent Showers family, one restored as private home by Scott and Jamee Wissink and one as the Showers Inn by Fierst Rentals. In addition to the tea dance and overnight accommodation at the West Baden Springs Hotel, the trip also includes insider tours of both historic hotels and meals. The cost of the trip is $359 per person, double occupancy and $467 per person, single occupancy. To inquire about the Aug. 9 and 10 trip, called Big Dance, Big Dome, Big Story, call Historic Landmarks headquarters in Indianapolis at (800) 450-4534.

Historic Landmarks will stage another tea dance on Dec. 6.

 Return to Top

Advanced Cemetery Preservation Workshop
This workshop from the Indiana Historical Society and Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology will be held on Aug. 22 or 23 at Spring Valley Cemetery in Lawrence.

Join us on either Saturday or Sunday for a one-day, hands-on workshop to learn advanced cemetery restoration techniques.

Only those who have attended a basic cemetery preservation workshop or have prior experience cleaning and straightening stones can enroll in the advanced workshop (as experience in cleaning and resetting stones is essential to understanding more complicated repairs).

Speakers will address the essential components of cemetery restoration. John Walters, professional cemetery restorer, will explain the techniques of cemetery restoration, including the kinds of mortar mixes and adhesives to use when reassembling broken stones and fallen obelisks. Participants will be restoring stones in the cemetery for the majority of the workshop. They will work with broken, leaning and misplaced stones and disassembled obelisks under the supervision of instructors. Participants will be able to ask for advice regarding specific preservation and restoration tasks throughout the day. The workshop will be held regardless of weather, and all participants will be involved in the hands-on session.

The cost is $25 IHS members, $22.50 Local History Partners and $30 for nonmembers and includes lunch.

This project has been funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior or the Department of Natural Resources.

This program receives federal financial assistance for the identification and protection of historic properties. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, or age in its federally assisted programs. If you believe that you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20240.

For more information or to register, please visit http://www.indianahistory.org/lhs/workshops.html. If you have questions, contact Local History Services at (317) 233-8913. Register by Aug. 10.

 Return to Top

World War II LSTs Exhibit at the Howard Steamboat Museum
This special exhibit will focus on LSTs (Landing Ship [for] Tanks) and will be on display from Aug. 19 through Sept. 6 at the Howard Steamboat Museum located at 1101 E. Market St. in Jeffersonville.

The exhibit will be on display in the Carriage house and will feature a model of an LST as well as several pictures of LSTs in action and even a complete collection of Jeffboat Safety Bulletins that were released between 1942 and 1945. The LST exhibit will be free to the public during normal museum hours, however there will be a nominal fee for a full tour of the mansion.

The exhibit coincides with the visit of LST 325 to Jeffersonville Aug. 21 through 30. LST 325 was recovered from the Greek island of Crete by a group of veterans with an average age of 76. This group had traveled to Greece to repair the no longer functional LST 325. In addition to repairing the ship, these veterans sailed the ship across the Atlantic Ocean leaving the Mediterranean Sea on Dec. 12, 2000. They arrived in Alabama on Jan. 10, 2001. The ship has since become a floating museum/memorial dedicated to those who served on any LST during World War II.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. For additional information, please visit http://www.steamboatmuseum.org/.

 Return to Top

Northern Indiana Historical Society Elects New Trustees
Les Lamon, Ph.D., and Jenny Zimmerman have been elected to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Northern Indiana Historical Society, which owns and operates the Center for History in South Bend. The election took place on June 22 at the Center for History’s 113th Annual Meeting. Re-elected trustees are J. Spike Abernethy, Philip M. Allen, Linda Doshi, James G. Hart, James W. Tuesley and Chuck Viater.

Elected as NIHS officers are Linda Doshi, president; Mark D. Noeldner, vice president; Mary Jane Stanley, secretary; and Chuck Viater, treasurer.

John Charles Bryant, a volunteer with 40 years of service, and Norma Lu Meehan, with 20 years of service, were inducted as honorary trustees.

 Return to Top

National:

Branch Director, Museum Division at the Eudora Welty House in Jackson, Miss.
This position with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History involves administrative work in which the incumbent serves as site director of the Eudora Welty House.

The Eudora Welty House is one of the most intact literary house museums in the nation. The property includes the author’s 1925 Tudor Revival home with historic gardens and an Education and Visitors Center.

Work involves formulating, directing and controlling the operations of the museum through subordinate personnel and conferences with branch managers and other administration personnel. Incumbent will oversee maintenance, preservation and conservation of the site’s buildings, grounds and collection by working with professionals, architects, exhibits designers, scholars and advisory team members from other agencies and institutions. Incumbent will be responsible for security of persons and property, administering day-to-day operations and maintaining national level museum professional standards. 

Additional responsibilities include preparing and managing site budget, developing strategic plans, developing and producing wide variety of programming for school groups and general public, supervising three museum staff members and various contractual workers, managing volunteer program and serving as public relations representative for the museum. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Work is subject to infrequent review, through conferences and reports, by Museum Division Director. The site director will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to insure proper protection of this National Historic Landmark.

Education and Experience must meet one of the following criteria:

• Master's Degree from an accredited four-year college or university; AND four years of special experience defined below, one year of which must have included line or functional administrative or advanced technical supervision.
• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited four-year college or university; AND five years of special experience defined below, one year of which must have included line or functional administrative or advanced technical supervision.
• Graduation from a standard four-year high school or equivalent (GED); AND nine years of experience in the special experience defined below, one year of which must have included line or functional administrative or advanced technical supervision.
• Special qualifications: At the Bachelor’s or higher level, degree must be in museum studies, historic site management, archaeology, anthropology, business, history, southern culture, education, literature or art, with required experience, all of which must have been in museum or historic site management; or at the high school or GED equivalent level, the required experience must have been in museum or historic site management.

The starting annual salary is $35,993.50 plus benefits.

To apply for this position, please visit http://www.spb.state.ms.us/ and submit an e-application, or call (601) 576-6865 to request an application. Before submitting your application to the State Personnel Board, please make a copy and mail it to MS Department of Archives and History, attn: Human Resources Office, P. O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205. The deadline for submitting applications is Friday, Aug. 21.

  Return to Top

Do you know someone who might want to receive Communique Online? Anyone may join the mailing list by e-mailing col@indianahistory.org.

If your historical organization, genealogical society or museum has changed its address or phone number in the past six months, please send the updated information to Coordinator, Local History Services, at the above e-mail, or Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202.