Indiana Heritage Research Grants abstracts 1990
The Indiana Heritage Research Grant program was jointly sponsored by the
Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Humanities Council. from 1986 to 2001.
The Indiana History Bulletin, Volume 63, Numbers 5/6 and 9/10 contained the first and second year abstracts from the Indiana Heritage Research Grant Program; The following abstracts were published in Volume 65, number 2 of the Bulletin.
The grants are awarded annually by the Indiana Historical Society and the
Indiana Humanities Council (1500 North Delaware Street/Indianapolis, IN 46202/317-638-1500.) From 1986 through 2000, the program has awarded $937,363 to fund 337 projects. The abstracts provide interesting models for local history projects and make available resources for research.
For further information about projects, please contact the entity listed in each entry.
Indexing, Copying, Preserving Early Montgomery County Indiana Marriage Affidavits (90-3001); Crawfordsville District Public Library, 222 S. Washington Street, Crawfordsville, IN 47933.
The goals of this project were to arrange thousands of documents from 1828-1920 in alphabetical order and photocopy them to make a usable research tool. The marriage affidavits were copied into a total of 26 books.
The Crawfordsville District Public Library houses the original documents in chronological/alphabetical acid-free folders (stored in acid-free boxes) as well as one of the photocopied sets for easy use. The other two sets are available for research in the Genealogy Department of the Indiana State Library and the Fort Wayne Public Library.
Since an individual had no means of identification for this historical period, this project will be a valuable tool in locating area settlers.
Six Decades' Service on the South Shore Line (90-3005); Michigan City Historical Society, P.O. Box 512, Michigan City, IN 46360.
C. Edward Hedstrom, a South Shore Line motorman was interviewed regarding his life-long work in train service. Hedstrom had additional information on his father's career in the same position on South Shore, 1920-1959. The 500-page transcript includes an index to names of places and people; maps of the South Shore Line showing where events took place; drawings and specifications of South Shore Line equipment; a roster of interurban rolling stock owned by Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway (1907-1925), and Samuel Insull's later Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (1925). Equipment drawings for the Northern Indiana Railway are included. Railroad terminology has been interpreted in a manner that will help a reader or researcher understand the railway.
Documentation of Culbertson Mansion Guest Bedroom Ceiling (90-3007); Friends of Culbertson Mansion, 914 East Main Street, New Albany, IN 47150.
Rebecca Garland and Associates methodically uncovered the original design of the ceiling. There was enough of the ceiling exposed during the research that the design of the pattern was evident. Paint analysis was done to determine what colors to use when the ceiling is replicated.
The research report is located at Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site. Blueprints, a videotape program, and slides are included in "An Eye for Architecture" educational kit also located at the site.
Patoka Valley Oral History Transcription (90-3008); Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Reservoir Management, 402 W. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204.
The upper Patoka River Valley was home to many people throughout the past until the 1960s when 26,000 acres were changed dramatically into Patoka Reservoir. The history and heritage of the area has been preserved in a unique collection of historical data, maps, photographs, personal collections, and taped interviews with former residents. Lografting, a unique economic system of the area, along with many other colorful recollections, is described in detailed audiotaped interviews that capture a sense of time and place in Patoka's past.
The transcripts are cataloged and housed with the working and archival copies of the tapes, and are accessible to the general public with the assistance of a staff person. The Patoka Heritage Collection can be utilized in public programming and future research.
The Indiana Room - A Local History Resource Center (90-3010); Marian Heights/Monastery Library, R.R. 3, Box 201, Ferdinand, IN 47532.
The limited staff and budget of our small, private library made it impossible to organize, retrieve, and display various materials from our Indiana Collection. The IHR grant made this project possible and practical.
We have changed the Indiana Collection of our library from a highly-appreciated, but poorly housed and unorganized collection, into a well-organized center for both research on and interpretation of Indiana History, not only for now but for the future!
Farmland to Parkland: An Evolution of the People and Their Land (90-3012); Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, 402 W. Washington St., Room 298W, Indianapolis, IN 46204 and Northern Indiana Historical Society, 808 W. Washington, South Bend, IN 46601.
The heart of this history project is comprised of 20 oral history interviews on audiotape taken from long-time landowners and residents who lived in what is now Potato Creek State Park in Liberty Township, St. Joseph County, Indiana.
Supplementing the audiotapes are slides of over 250 old family photographs, approximately 200 photographs of the park area before construction began in the 1960s and 1970s, and 25 maps and drawings of the area from 1875 to the present. In addition, the collection includes 181 three-dimensional artifacts which people have donated, such as a 'hog stretcher'.
Newspaper clippings, copies of family documents, and reports describing the formation of the park round out the collection.
The cataloged collection will be available to researchers as permanent archives in the Nature Center at Potato Creek State Park and at the Northern Indiana Historical Society Museum. A multi-media slide program highlighting the local history of Liberty Township and Potato Creek State Park will also be available in both locations.
Hispanic Indianapolis: An Oral History Project (90-3016); University of Indianapolis, 1400 East Hanna Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46227.
Recognizing the absence of resources for producing a history of the growing Hispanic population in Indianapolis, this project is devoted to gathering and preserving the city's Hispanic history through the collection of personal histories. Although focused on personal and family stories, these interviews also reveal valuable information about the origins, history, and character of the city's diverse Hispanic population.
Several of the transcribed interviews, which vary in length from one to two hours, have been deposited in the library of the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis. At the informants' request, tapes and interviews are closed to public use for a period of years.
Zoo Talk: An Oral History of the Indianapolis Zoo (90-3017); Indianapolis Zoological Society, Inc., 1200 W. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222-4500.
Oral history interviews with 9 individuals connected with the founding of the Indianapolis Zoo in 1964 are housed in the archives of the Indianapolis Zoological Society Library at the zoo.
The information covers the attitudes and personalities of the zoo's founder (Lowell Nussbaum) and early board members, fund-raising, problems and opportunities involved with building a zoo, and early zoo programs.
Cedar Lake P.O.P. (Preserve Old Photos) (90-3022); Cedar Lake Historical Association, Inc., P.O. Box 421, Cedar Lake, IN 46303.
The Cedar Lake Historical Association, Inc. has copied 1,012 historic photographs owned by the town of Cedar Lake and made prints of 216 photographs. The project is on-going and will eventually include negatives of approximately 2,000 photographs with a print for each.
These photographs include images of early towns around Cedar Lake, several portraits of residents and guests at Cedar Lake, and many views of homes, hotels, saloons, stores, and businesses, many of which have been demolished.
A usable retrieval system is still being developed.
Broadening Community Heritage: Historical Resources in the Calumet Region (90-3023); Hammond Public Library, 564 State Street, Hammond, IN 46320.
The Hammond Public Library cataloged the 765-item collection of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century books and entered them into the national on-line bibliographic database, making them accessible to researchers in other libraries. Volunteers from the Hammond Historical Society began preservation measures to ensure the invaluable 630 file folders and picture materials would not deteriorate. The brochure, report on the project, and list of books are available from the Hammond Public Library.
Preserving a Late Nineteenth-Century Library (90-3025); Indiana Medical History Museum, 3045 West Vermont Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222-4943.
The objective of the grant was to allow the Indiana Medical History Museum to preserve its collection of medical research materials. The original collection was arranged between 1895 and 1929 by Dr. George Edenharter, Superintendent of Central State Hospital, where the museum is located. The museum was able to clean the materials and storage areas, create catalog records, and protect materials in archival boxes.
The collection is unique in that it represents medical knowledge available in the English language or translation into English in one location during the period of the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.
Not to Be Forgotten (90-3026); Indiana University, Grant & Contract Administration, P.O. Box 1847, Bloomington, IN 47402.
The sixty-year career of Dorothy H. Rowley has produced a unique collection of information on the life of the town of LaPorte, IN. Miss Rowley's research interests have included the social, political, cultural, and genealogical history of the town.
The manuscript produced by this project is a collection of essays detailing subjects ranging from the history of famous crimes in the city to cultural differences in various neighborhoods and architectural studies. The information is useful to the historian who wishes to examine cultural ideas, changing social mores, and the ways a community develops, both as a town and as subgroups in that town.
The Suburbanization of Indianapolis: An Outline of Metropolitan Development in Marion County, 1830-1990 (90-3027); POLIS, Indiana University at Indianapolis, 425 University Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46202.
This project sought a preliminary understanding of how the city of Indianapolis grew to encompass all of Marion County by charting the contours of 170 years of metropolitan development. The principal product of this project is a series of fifteen maps showing the decennial advancement of suburbanization in Marion County and a research summary which, taken together, provide a chronology of the physical development of Indianapolis since its establishment in 1820. The original set of these maps will be available at the POLIS Research Center at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Knox County Bicentennial Court Records Project (90-3028); Knox County Public Library, 502 N. 7th Street, Vincennes, IN 47591.
The Knox County Bicentennial Court Records Project commemorated the 200th anniversary of Knox County. Through the project, Knox County court files for the years 1796-1860 were preserved/restored using standard archival methods. The records were badly soiled and stored in metal file drawers in their original folded state.
These rich historical records are now stored in nearly 8,800 acid-free folders and 170 document cases. An index for patron use has been completed. These records are housed at the Knox County Records Library, 819 Broadway Street, Vincennes, IN.
Cole Porter "You're the Top" (90-3029); Miami County Historical Society, Inc., 51 N. Broadway, Peru, IN 46970.
The main project goal was to produce a 20- minute videotape documentary on the life of Cole Porter for use in school classrooms and for community programs. The secondary goal was to organize, catalog, and preserve the collection for future researchers.
Copies were made of all the items, and the originals were placed in acid-free folders and in archival notebooks and boxes. Negatives of all photographs were placed in archival sleeves and are readily available for copy requests.
Copies of articles from trade journals and magazines were obtained and added to the collection. Through research, many discrepancies were found in the articles over the years and were noted.
The Way We Were: More Historical Photographs of Putnam County (90-3030); Putnam County Public Library, 102 E. Walnut Street, Greencastle, IN 46135
Building on work begun in 1986, the Putnam County Public Library organized, cataloged, and housed nearly 200 historical photographs. Our goals were to preserve and secure the original photographs, to describe them as fully as possible, and to provide easy public access to the collection. A slide show is available for use by individuals and groups.
Indiana Native American Oral History Project (90-3031); Shawnee Historical Association, 5501 East 200 North, Lafayette, IN 47905.
The goal of this project was to collect oral histories from individuals in west central Indiana of Native American descent. Nine audiotapes and two videotapes were completed in the course of the project.
Studebaker Films Transferred to Video (90-3032); Studebaker National Museum, 525 South Main Street, South Bend, IN 46601.
The Studebaker National Museum's Archival Film-On-Video collection documents the development of a major Indiana automotive manufacturer, which played a significant role in Indiana's and the United States' industrial growth.
The Museum's film collection, 1928-1966, contains promotional film, product testing, commercials, news footage, film of special events, and Packard Motor Company film acquired through the Studebaker/Packard merger. The Museum's film collection also contains film on the Studebaker National Museum and the Studebaker Drivers Club. A "Finding Aid" has been developed. The film has been transferred to 3/4-inch videotape and 1/2-inch VHS tape.
Myths of Wyandotte Cave: Developing an Oral/Written History Base (90-3034); Crawford County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc., R.R. 1, Leavenworth, IN 47137.
The initial goals of this project were to establish a history base for Wyandotte Cave of written and oral information and to compile a bibliography of sources. This bibliography would include all books, manuscripts, news clippings, diaries, collections (public and private), related historical events, and a list of oral history candidates associated with the local area of Wyandotte Cave.
The written material base was extensive, so efforts were reorganized to collect all written material. Findings are being printed with private funds and made available to the public as work is completed. Future work will include more written material, tapes, transcripts, maps, and a gazetteer of Wyandotte Cave.
The Women's Dimension of the Ethnic Experience of Ukrainian-Americans in Northwest Indiana (90-3037); Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Inc., Branch 102, 14726 Reeder Road, Crown Point, IN 46507.
Fourteen Ukrainian-American women of northwest Indiana participated in this project, which produced 47 hours of taped oral history interviews focusing on their self-identities through life history recollections. Ukrainian identity had importance in the lives of all these women, but it differed in its expression: the individuals interpreted Ukrainian ethnicity differently as it applied to family, holiday traditions, language, the church, ties to the homeland, and preservation of a Ukrainian consciousness.
Prairie Club Archives (90-3038); Westchester Public Library, 200 W. Indiana Ave., Chesterton, IN 46304.
The Prairie Club was founded in 1908 by public spirited outdoor enthusiasts living in or near Chicago. Members of the club worked to establish playgrounds and forest preserves in the Chicago area.
Conservation efforts from club members eventually resulted in the establishment of the Indiana Dunes State Park and contributed to the later establishment of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
The Prairie Club Archives is a significant historical resource because it represents a written and visual record of an important chapter in Indiana history and because it documents the Prairie Club's contributions to the birth of the American conservation movement.
The Prairie Club Archives is arranged by type of material (correspondence, printed material, photographs, etc.) with a card index arranged by subject. Copies of the archives' publicity brochure and Inventory/User's Guide are available to researchers at the library. Please call in advance, 219-926-7696, to arrange an appointment to use the collection.
The History and Development of Girls' High School Sport in the State of Indiana (90-3039); Indiana University, Grant & Contract Administration, P.O. Box 1847, Bloomington, IN 47402.
The purpose of this study was to chronologically document and depict the emergence of girls' high school sport in the state of Indiana, focusing on the twentieth century. The study was divided into five main time frames: 1900-1931, 1931-1940, 1940-1960, 1960-1972, and 1972-1990, representing major shifts in the structure and governance of girls' high school sport in Indiana.
Personal interviews were conducted with Indiana League of High School Girls' Athletic Association sponsors, school administrators, college personnel, and female participants in intramural and interscholastic sports. Interview tapes, archival materials, and project analyses resulted from the research.
Materials produced as a result of this project are located in the Indiana University Oral History Department and the HPER library in Bloomington and the IHSAA office in Indianapolis.
In Isolated Dignity: Ohio River Lock and Dam Communities in Indiana (90-3040); Mary Anderson Center, Mt. St. Francis, IN 47146.
The goal of this research project was to study the social, engineering, and architectural history of Indiana's Ohio River lock and dam sites. Between 1910 and 1920, a series of 50 lock and dam facilities were constructed along the Ohio River. The sites included housing for locks, lockmasters and their families, as well as other amenities.
The project involved oral histories collected from family members and documentary research using materials and photographs owned by local historians and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Project researcher Thomas W. Salmon II compiled a slide presentation with 60 images and a 28-page narrative based on the project.
Indiana's Stone Cutters and Carvers: Builders for the Nation (90-3041); Monroe County Historical Museum, 202 E. Sixth Street, Bloomington, IN 47408.
The purpose of this project was to collect oral histories (on audiotape and videotape) of people who worked in the Indiana limestone industry in Monroe and Lawrence counties in the first half of the twentieth century. Among those interviewed are quarry owners, stone cutters, stone carvers, family members of men who worked in the industry, Indiana University geologists who have studied the Indiana limestone industry extensively, and an I.U. folklore professor who has studied the use of limestone carvings in the local community.
Available to researchers are 15 one-hour audiotapes and 8 videotapes of the full interviews with 15 subjects. Also available is a 30- minute video entitled "Limestone Pieces"-which is an edited compilation of the information found in the videotaped interviews.
Freetown Village (90-3042); Freetown Village, P.O. Box 1041, Indianapolis, IN 46206.
The purpose of this research project was to conduct primary research for the period from the late 1860s to the early 1870s for the old Fourth Ward section of Indianapolis. The Fourth Ward was roughly bounded by Washington Street, West Street, Indiana Avenue, and the White River.
The research focused on several key areas of life in the Fourth Ward: water and sanitation, street conditions, street lights, food sources (especially livestock and gardens), transportation, and businesses and services.