Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department
Historical sketch
Scope and Content note
Cataloging Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
11 January 1993
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VOLUME OF COLLECTION: |
3 bound volumes |
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COLLECTION DATES: |
1915-1963 |
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PROVENANCE: |
Marjorie Snodgrass, Indianapolis IN, 23 October 1992 |
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REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society |
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ACCESSION NUMBER: |
1993.0027 |
The history of Arsenal Technical High School begins with the federal Arsenal set up during the Civil War on a 76-acre site north and east of the center of Indianapolis. This Arsenal was abandoned in 1903. In 1904 an institution called Winona Technical Institute was set up on the Arsenal grounds. It became insolvent in 1909. There was some litigation about ownership and control of the grounds. At this time the city had two high schools: Shortridge, an academic high school, founded in 1863; and Emmerich Manual Training High School, which had opened in 1895, the offshoot of vocational courses offered at Shortridge after 1889. By 1912 both Shortridge and Manual High Schools were overcrowded, and a new school was set up using the grounds and buildings at the Arsenal. The school began with 183 students, of whom 122 graduated. Courses were offered in printing, machine shop practice, auto construction, agriculture, electricity, and salesmanship. Along with the technical courses there were college preparatory academic courses, and it was possible to take a straight academic course. By 1916 the student body had grown to two thousand. In the years since, as the city has grown, the number of high schools has increased. Arsenal Technical High School has remained on the same grounds, with new buildings and a much larger student body and essentially the same mission.
Sources: Materials in collection
Journal Handbook of Indianapolis, 1900
The Story of Technical High School, supplement to the Arsenal Cannon, 1969, reprinted 1949
This collection, consisting of three bound volumes, contains transcripts of interviews with graduates of Arsenal Technical High School from the classes of 1915 through 1963. Several of the graduates also taught at the school, and give that added prespective to their interviews.
Volume 1 (BV 2635) contains fourteen interviews of graduates from classes from 1915 to 1939.
Volume 2 (BV 2636) contains ten interviews of graduates from classes between 1940 and 1949.
Volume 3 (BV 2637) contains seven interviews of graduates from classes between 1951 and 1963.
As some of the graduates also taught at the school, they actually expand the time frame past 1963.
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
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