Authors

The Civil War from Gettysburg to Appomattox

Suzanne Hahn — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:55:00 -0400

: This circa 1864/1865 image of the entrance to Camp Morton is featured in the new exhibit in the Rosemary McKee Lanham Gallery on the fourth floor of the History Center.

Abe Lincoln here. Although it has been 100, two score, and eight years since I was shot to death while attending a play with my Mary, Major Rathbone and his fiancée, Miss Harris, I decided to stop by the Lanham Gallery on the fourth floor of the History Center to see the exhibition commemorating the sesquicentennial of our Civil War. The people there have put up the second part of the exhibition, covering essentially the second half of this bloody conflict. Its title is The Civil War from Gettysburg to Appomattox and it includes items depicting the war from the beginning of 1863 through Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. I was killed less than one week after that.

The exhibition includes representations of events, places and people of particular interest to Hoosiers, including myself, as it was in Indiana where I spent my formative years. These include Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan's raid into Indiana; a panoramic photograph of an 11th Indiana Battery encampment at Chattanooga, Tenn.; photographs of Camp Morton in Indianapolis, which held Confederate prisoners of war; a diary entry from a Miami County soldier in the 26th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment; and an emancipation record of a former slave who became a member of the Weaver Settlement in Grant County.

There are also prints illustrating battles at Vicksburg and Gettysburg; 1864 election-year political cartoons; a couple of illustrations by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly; maps; letters; lithographs of my generals and admirals and of my little speech at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Penn. (which I am surprised to find has been remembered all these years); and depictions of the fall of Richmond, Va., and Gen. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. There are some likenesses of me hanging on the walls of this gallery, but it was a strange experience to encounter a life-size statue of myself.

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. When not performing as the rapper One-Cent, he enjoys attending Civil War reenactments to point out to participants what they are doing wrong.

Beekeepers and Bank Robbers

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:50:00 -0400

So, I never knew my great grandparents were bee keepers.

This might not sound like a big deal, but when you are researching your family history, finding fun facts like these can make the story that much more complete and interesting. I found a reference to their involvement in a beekeeping convention in a 1920 newspaper article from the Mooresville Times.

We have been discovering a lot of interesting facts about people and events with our new newspaper database. Researchers have found ancestors on both sides of the law (both arrest records and reports of stopping crime). We have found texts of speeches made to the state legislature, how Hoosiers coped with the 1913 flood, and advertisements to early businesses in the state.

Newspapers can be a great source for research and now they are much easier to search and access. The Indiana Historical Society recently partnered with Newspaper Archive to digitize 5,625 reels of microfilm, which represents more than 2.5 million newspaper page images dated 1924 or earlier. Now, 760 individual Indiana newspaper titles representing the vast majority of the state are now available for research on the web. Researchers can search newspaper pages by keyword or browse particular issues. To make the news even better, folks can access the database for free in the reference room of IHS’s William Henry Smith Memorial Library.

The Library is open to the public fro 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. If you are unable to visit, personal subscriptions are available for purchase through NewspaperArchive.com. Come and try the new database – maybe your ancestor was a beekeeper or a bank robber!

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Suzanne Hahn is director of reference services for the IHS Collections and Library. She loves helping people find the information they seek and is perhaps the only librarian ever to get shushed for laughing too loud in a library.

The 1940 Census

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:10:00 -0400

April 2, 2012. The wait is over. If you are a genealogist, you have had this date circled for some time. For those of you wondering the importance of April 2, 2012 – no, it is not a new day after April Fool’s holiday – it is the release of the 1940 Census!

For privacy reasons, censuses are not available for public use for 72 years, so when one gets released, we all get a little excited. Census records can provide a wealth of information if you are researching a family, person, neighborhood or community.

One note – when the 1940 census is first released there will not be a name index. So, if you are trying to find a specific person, you will need to know where they lived and their enumeration district. Several websites have tips for tracking down enumeration districts:
National Archives: www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/start-research.html or
Stephen Morse: www.stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

Over the next few weeks, several online databases and websites will be frantically indexing the census records so you will be able to search by a specific name. We have several of the databases available for free in our library, if you want to visit and explore the 1940 Census.

For more information on the 1940 Census, including tips and tricks for using it in your research, join us for our Learning the 1940 Census workshop on April 14. For more information or to register online, click here.

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A Letter to Grandma

Suzanne Hahn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:30:00 -0500

It amazes me how early children learn that grandmas are one of their biggest allies. Maybe it is because they don't hear the word "no" as often or they get chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, but grandchildren know they have a special bond with grandma. So when I came across this letter from Mary Stewart to her grandma, it made me smile to see that bond has existed for a while in history.

The letter is part of the Slawson-Tarkington Papers, a collection that documents the lives of two Indiana families. The Slawson family settled in Switzerland County, and the Tarkington family settled in Greensburg. In the letter, young Mary Stewart writes to her grandmother, Maria [Slawson] Tarkington. She pleads her case about buying candy but not getting to eat sugar and talks about family matters. She ends the letter with love to all at grandma’s house and asks for a letter in return.

Do you think grandma would have let her have some sugar?

Civil War Sesquicentennial

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:00:00 -0400

With the 150th anniversary underway, the American Civil War is getting a lot of attention. New books are being published, websites launched and events planned to commemorate the sesquicentennial. Indiana played its part in the war, supplying more than 200,000 men for service in the military. Our library has thousands of items concerning Indiana’s role in the Civil War, ranging from soldiers’ diaries to sheet music. Check out our new Civil War Researcher’s Guide. It explains how to search our collection and the types of materials we have.

Want to see the items but can’t visit in person? Our Digital Image Collection has a growing collection of over a thousand items concerning the Civil War, available to view online here.

To learn more about upcoming events or other resources throughout the state, visit the Indiana's Civil War 150th Commemoration 2011-2015 website.

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Can We Take Your Order?

Suzanne Hahn — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:05:00 -0500

I love looking at old menus and recipe books. Historically, they can tell a lot about a time period and how people lived (and there is also the yum and yuck factor that can be a lot of fun). We recently catalogued several menus from the restaurant in Hotel Bates, all dating from the mid 1870s. Commonly known at the Bates House, it was considered one of the finest hotels in the Midwest. The Bates House could actually claim that Abraham Lincoln stayed there – and even gave a speech from the hotel balcony – while traveling to D.C. for his inauguration as president. The restaurant in the hotel was quite the fine dining experience.

The menu and wine list offer a variety of choices but still nicely fits on one sheet, unlike the tomes we get today. Relishes like tomato catsup and French mustard had to be ordered. There is also a distinction between pastries (which sound amazing) and desserts, many of which we might not term desserts today.

Food tastes have changed over the years (not too many calves brains or knuckle of veal on menus these days). It makes you wonder how menus from today will be viewed a hundred years from now.

Bon Appétit!

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Thank You to All Our Veterans

Suzanne Hahn — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:10:00 -0500

: Irven Armstrong Collection, IHS. Click letters to enlarge.

As we honor our veterans today, I think of some of the amazing stories we have in our collection of Hoosiers serving our country. I think of Irven Armstrong of Westfield, who left his teaching position at IPS School #17 to serve overseas during World War I. He wrote letters back to his students describing his experiences and they returned with letters describing the homefront. I also think of his parents, Edward and Sarah Armstrong, who had all five sons serve in the war.

I think of Ted Krol of Hammond whose B-17 was shot down in France during World War II. With help from French Patriots and the French Underground he was able to escape capture. His oral history is one of the hundreds of interviews as part of the Doug Clanin World War II Oral History Collection.

I think of Karen Mundell of Frankfort who was the first woman in the Army Nurse Corps from Indiana to ask for direct assignment to Vietnam, where she served for one year from 1966 to 1967. Her collection of letters written to her family describe her daily activities as a nurse at the intensive care recovery ward at the base hospital at Bien Hoa Air Base.

Thank you to all the Hoosier men and women that have served our country.

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Lard Art, Anyone?

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:50:00 -0400

Ah, it is State Fair time in Indiana and we all have our favorite activities. Most of mine involve the various food booths. I recently saw some unique images of a different kind of “food” booth from fairs in the years past – the Lard Art exhibit. Yes, instead of deep-frying it, Hoosiers used to create these wonderful displays of lard. Sculptures ranging from dancing pigs (below, 1941) to political figures (below, 1940) were created from lard and displayed at the fair.

These images are from the J.C. Allen and Son Collection, a recently processed collection that contains thousands of images documenting the Indiana State Fair from 1926 to 1951. Dorothy Nicholson, visual collections archivist, has been selecting a number of items from each year to include in our Digital Image Collection.

In addition to the wonderful images of lard art, there are pictures of prize-winning show animals, band day competitions, the midway, and all the other things that makes the Indiana State Fair so special. So, enjoy the State Fair and enjoy these images from state fairs in the past. And next time you open that jar of shortening – don’t just think Fry Daddy, think artwork!

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The Narcissus, Squealer and Tattler, Too!

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:05:00 -0400

I just got my invitation to my high school reunion – I won’t go into to details but it is a, <gulp>, significant number. The reunion Web site has some pages from our senior yearbook, and it brought back a lot of fond memories. Yearbooks can be a great tool – whether you are looking for a specific person, trying to learn more about a school, or to just get a better understanding of what life was like during that time period. I think if a researcher looked at my yearbook they would wonder how we all got our hair so big. I recently worked with a genealogist who found her grandfather listed in a yearbook from the 1920s. She had never met him but learned he was involved with music (as was she), his nickname and even his quote for the class. Often these early yearbooks include descriptive paragraphs about each senior – like these seniors listed in the 1915 Logansport Tattler.

I love the description of Thelma Sines, who besides being earnest and sincere could make a great banana pie. You just don’t get that kind of wonderful information from a census record.

We do not have a yearbook for every school in Indiana or for every year – but we do have a nice collection. So if you are looking for the Narcissus (Peru), the Squealer (Martinsville), or the Kay Aitch Ess (Kendallville), let us know.

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Calling All Corn Cultivator Experts

Suzanne Hahn — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:30:00 -0400

Tell me you label your images with names, dates or some kind of identification.

I admit, I am horrible about labeling my pictures. I currently have almost 600 images on my digital camera and when the memory card maxes out I will finally get around to making some prints. Usually these prints are enjoyed and placed in a photo archive box. Even now, I will go through photographs a mere 10 years old and wonder the event or year. When working with images in our collection, it is wonderful when they have some identification or information with them. I came across a great image in our collection that I wanted to use in an upcoming Destination Indiana journey on farm machinery.

Unfortunately, the photograph had no info – except it was in a collection of Henry County items, and it probably dated circa 1910. It looks like it could be an interesting story – why would a family get all dressed up and pose on a piece of farm machinery. But, what the heck was that machine? I checked farm books, farm websites and with farmers and got answers ranging from a potato planter to sodbuster to rutabaga picker (I think the person just liked incorporating rutabaga in a sentence whenever possible).

Turns out, we had this same print in another collection. However, this time it was part of an album that included labels. According to the album, it was a demonstration of a patented corn cultivator that took place at the Esterbrook farm in 1917. I am still trying to verify if it is a corn cultivator (if we have any corn cultivator experts out there, let me know) but it certainly gives me several leads to explore.

So, thanks to all of you who identify your images. Librarians in the future will thank you too!

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How Will Your Diary Help Historians?

Suzanne Hahn — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:30:00 -0400

Do you keep a diary, journal or daily blog? I often think about how researchers hundreds of years from now will use these items to document what life was like during our time.

When I was young, I briefly kept a diary and although I don’t think historians will consider who I had a crush on in the sixth grade as historically significant, these first-hand accounts can be a goldmine of information.

For example, on this date in 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. This event has been the topic of hundreds of books written over the years. However, I think looking at the diaries and letters from people at that time can often show a unique perspective. I took a peek at some our diaries and letters on this date (click on them to see the full-size image):

: In this April 10, 1865, letter, N.B. Tower describes the rejoicing on the streets when the news reached Fort Wayne – cannons firing, bells ringing and 'jolification.'

: John Sherwood was serving in the Indiana 66th Regiment when he found out the news. According to his diary, he found out three days after the event.

: Marie Brandt documents the news reaching Madison, Ind., on April 10.

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A Dial-Up Librarian Enters the Blogosphere

Suzanne Hahn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:10:00 -0500

When I was first approached about doing a blog for the library, my first thought was "YIKES." Being new to the blogging world, this was unchartered terrain for me. After all, we still have dial-up at home and I rely on my 2 year old to help program our DVD player. However, the more I thought about it, I realized – what a great forum to talk about the wonderful items in our collection. After 10 years of working in the library at the Indiana Historical Society, I am still uncovering gems in the collection.

With more than 1.5 million images, thousands of books, manuscripts and maps there is a lot to uncover. We recently estimated that if you stacked our collections flat page-by-page, it would be a single stack almost 6 miles high. (OK, so we didn’t actually try this but you get the idea that there are a lot of great materials that we can talk about in our blog.) Here are a few of my favorites.

: This 1833 map uniquely and beautifully depicts our developing nation.

: A woman gives an orange to a departing WWI soldier. (Bretzman Collection, Indiana Historical Society)

: This one caught your eye – didn’t it?! The American Red Cross sponsored this circa 1918 broadside to help keep WWI servicemen healthy.

Let me know your favorite Indiana history topic or if you have a question about something we might have in the collection – you can leave a comment here or e-mail us at reference@indianahistory.org.

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