Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

INDIANA BOARD
ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES, 1961-1971

Collection #
M 0155

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box Inventory
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Charles Latham
June 1990, March 1991

COLLECTION INFORMATION

HISTORICAL SKETCH

  The Indiana Board on Geographic Names was formed early in 1961 at the suggestion of Joseph I. Perrey, Chief Engineer of the Indiana State Flood Control and Water Resources Commission. The Commission was being called on to check on the names of geographic features, and it was felt that the decisions of a group with wider representation would have more authority. The Board came to include members of the Indiana Historical Society, the State Highway Commission, the Schools of Agriculture and Engineering at Purdue, the Geological Survey based at Indiana University, and the Division of Water Resources of the Department of Conservation. It modeled its operation after that of similar boards in other states, especially Oregon. Governor Welsh in an Executive Order of 15 October 1963 recognized the Board as the official body for its purpose.

The Board did not seek names to act on, but answered questions about such subjects as unnamed features, preferences between two names, correct spelling, and sources of confusion. It dealt mainly with the names of streams, lakes and ponds, and small towns.

To begin with the Board met frequently, and then continued for more than a decade. Much of the legwork was done by the staff of the Flood Control and Water Resources Commission. A typical "finding" of the Board would include a preferred spelling, several spellings not preferred, a precise geographical location, and a description of how the finding had been arrived at.

  Occasionally place names became politically controversial, as when a Boone County surveyor began to rename roads using a different system than was used elsewhere in the State.

  Most of the material in this sketch comes from a history of the Board written by Caroline Dunn, which is found in Folder 1.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection, filling five manuscript boxes, contains minutes and correspondence of the Board and its "findings," with a few clippings and with copies of three lists of Findings published by the Board. It is arranged chronologically.

In Box 1 Folder 1 is an account of the Board's work written in 1968 by Caroline Dunn, the Historical Society's representative on the Board. In the remaining boxes and folders are copies of minutes, findings, and correspondence, 1961-1971-- heavier in the early years. Copies of the Board's printed Findings are in Box 3 Folder 13; material about the Oregon Board in Box 3 Folder 14.

BOX INVENTORY

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END