...Art, Music, Photography

Skirting the Issue

Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Artists

Judith Vale Newton & Carol Ann Weiss

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

*Winner Non-Fiction “Best Books of Indiana 2005”

*Winner “2005 Benjamin Franklin Award” in category of Arts

*Finalist Foreword Magazine’s “Best Book of the Year”

*Finalist Non-Fiction 2005 Great Lakes Book Award

According to the ethos of the late 1800s and early 1900s, a woman’s destiny was to be a wife, mother, and guardian of the virtues of hearth and home. Some women wanted more, however, and despite cultural expectations, chose to explore their creativity and seek training in art. Often, at considerable social cost, these women exchanged washboards, ovens, and mending baskets for the challenges of a piece of canvas or block of stone.

In Skirting the Issue, authors Judith Vale Newton and Carol Ann Weiss present dozens of women from Indiana who chose this route. The authors include a biographical dictionary detailing the lives of 100 of the state’s historical women artists, and single out nearly 40 artists for further examination in detailed essays. They describe the challenges, the sacrifices, and the varying degrees of success they met. While this first-of-a-kind book focuses on Indiana women in specifically, its stories offer excellent insights into the culture and values of the greater Midwest—and the nation at large—in the decades before and after the turn of the 20^th century.

400 pp • © 2004 • cloth •200+ full color illustrations • b&w photographs • ISBN: 0-87195-177-0

The Art of Healing

The Wishard Art Collection

Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko

Co-Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

Wishard Memorial Foundation,Inc

In 1914, a group of renowned Hoosier artists came together for the benefit of patients at Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indiana’s largest public hospital. The prominent artists painted murals to decorate the new building and to lift spirits. Ninety years later the Indiana Historical Society and Wishard have produced a book featuring the works. The project involved a total of sixteen Indiana artists, including, William Forsyth, Wayman Adams, Otto Starke, Carl Graf, William Edouard Scott, T.C. Steele and others.

105 pp • © 2004 • cloth • color illustrations • ISBN: 0-87195-171-1

A PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT. 

With a strong heritage and an eye on the future, the beauty of a great American city is revealed.  Indianapolis, Indiana, the Crossroads of America, unfolds through the evocative images of photographer Richard W. Clark.

Get ready to look up—with Hoosier photographer, John Bower. Victorian gingerbread, ornate cornices, limestone creatures, soaring towers, unexpected attics, and much more await your exploration. While many people fail to notice these overhead treasures, Bower has focused all his creative attention on them. The result is 200 fascinating images of what’s upstairs, on top, and overhead. There are also captivating stories of discovery, and an insightful Foreword by Michael Atwood, host of “Across Indiana.” 2nd Stories is an unforgettable journey into the higher, hidden realms of the Hoosier heartland.

In short, 2nd Stories is about coming upon the unexpected that is, remarkably, always present. Because we tend to look straight ahead, we inevitably miss the "higher" dimensions of our daily reality. And there is so much to perceive up there—as 2nd Stories demonstrates. As you turn its pages, you'll discover images of ornate Victorian storefronts, soaring steeples, advertisements, clock towers, and other high-up outdoor wonders. Plus, there are rarely visited attics and upper-level interior spaces at an abbey, a monastery, a Civil War era children's home, an 1860's college building, and more. 2nd Stories will continue to intrigue and fascinate every time you flip through its pages.

Sentinels. Guardians. Cathedrals. These are just some of the words used to describe the towering grain elevators still dotting Indiana's countryside. Join acclaimed Hoosier photographer John Bower as he captures, in stunning black-and-white imagery, the majestic dignity of these vanishing agricultural icons—along with small-town feed mills and picturesque grist mills. After the Harvest is a celebration of the simple dignity of these utilitarian structures—their soaring wood, concrete, and tile exteriors, as well as their dusty, dark, hidden interior spaces. After the Harvest is a book about Indiana's agricultural heritage.

Lingering Spirit contains 208 stunning photographs by Hoosier photographer John Bower. All the images in Lingering Spirit were taken in 10 southern Indiana counties. However, many of the scenes depicted are reminiscent of those that can be found elsewhere in Indiana. Some images are dark and moody, some pensive and haunting, and others convey a stark realism.

Each page of Lingering Spirit reveals a moving portrait of a by-gone era. There are photographs of farmsteads, stores, tractors, cars, barns, even towns—all deteriorating, abandoned and, occasionally, just about ready to collapse. This wasn't always so. They were once vital buildings, vehicles, and objects, but their usefulness came to an end. So, they were set aside, then ultimately forgotten. Yet, they still radiate a warm and positive energy. Because they were places of human activity—designed and built by human hands—I can sense a remnant of our forebears' life force in them. This is what has been captured in Lingering Spirit.

Indiana in Stereo

Three-Dimensional Views of the Heartland

George R. Hanlin & Paula J. Corpuz

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

Nearly two hundred historical stereo views and more than thirty contemporary views by noted Indiana photographer Darryl Jones have been reproduced to make up this charming book. These stereographs chronicle the changing nature of life in the Hoosier State—from the days of small family farms and travel by horse to the growth of cities and the rise of the automobile. Pictured are scenes from across the state showing landscapes, prominent buildings, natural disasters, families, ect. Included is a handheld viewer so readers can view all the stereographs, both historical and modern, as they were intended to be seen in three-dimensional wonder.

289 pp. © 2003 • cloth • illustrations • ISBN: 0-87195-165-7

Reviews.

On the Banks of the Wabash

The Life and Music of Paul Dresser

Clayton Henderson

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

Paul Dresser (brother of famous author Theodore Dreiser), called at times the “greatest of American popular song writers,” wrote sentimental music and lyrics recalling the days of youth, home, mother, and love. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and composer of “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” Paul Dresser’s life was a rags-to-riches tale. 

 “An excellent source study on the creation of celebrity and mass popular culture in pre-Hollywood….recommended for all libraries.”—Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib. Kingsville. Library Journal/July 2003

450 pp. © 2003 • cloth • illustrations • ISBN: 0-87195-166-5

Stardust Melody

The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael

Richard M. Sudhalter

Published By

Oxford

In Association With

Indiana Historical Society

Hoagy Carmichael remains, for millions, the voice of heartland America, eternal counterpoint to the urban sensibility of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Now, trumpeter and historian Richard M. Sudhalter has penned the first book-length biography of this unique American composer.

Stardust Melody follows Carmichael from his roaring-twenties Indiana youth to bandstands and recording studios across the nation, playing piano and singing alongside greats Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and close friends Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. It illuminates his peak Hollywood years, starring in such films as To Have and Have Not and The best Years of Our Lives, and on radio, records, and TV. With compassionate insight Sudhalter depicts Hoagy’s triumphs and tragedies, and his mounting despair as rock-and-roll drowns out and lays waste to the last days of a brilliant career. Drawing on Carmichael’s private papers and on interviews with family, friends and colleagues, Stardust Melody offers a richly textured portrait of one of our greatest musical figures, and inspiring American icon.

“ A thorough, well-documented portrait of the largely self-trained musician who began his life in poverty and emerged as one of the most important and versatile songwriters of the century.”—The Baltimore Sun

480 pp • © 2002 • cloth • ISBN: 0-19-513120-7

The Jazz State of Indiana

Duncan Schiedt

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

The Jazz State of Indiana, in it’s play on words, is truly a story of one state’s experience in the development of jazz and dance music. It is , as it turned out, a book which readers across the world have read and accepted as history that might have occurred in the greater Midwestern United States.

256 pp. • © 1977, 1999 • paper •

You’re Sensational

Cole Porter in the ’20s, ’40s, & ’50s

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

Volume 2 in the Cole Porter Centennial Collection. This volume covers the 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s.

158 pp. © 1999, paper. Black& White Illustrations

Remembrance, Faith, and Fancy

Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana Historical

 Glory-June Greiff

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

In the early 1850s Henry Cross, a stone carver, fashioned three road-marker heads in Brown County, Indiana. The markers, on of which survives today on maps as Stone Head, were the first outdoor public sculptures in the Hoosier State. Through the years, counties throughout the state have continued to add to Cross’s legacy, dotting the landscape with sculptures both realistic and fanciful.

The wealth of outdoor public sculpture in Indiana is highlighted in an authoritative examination of the art by noted public historian Glory-June Greiff. Remembrance, Faith, and Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana examines the more than 1,500 pieces of outdoor sculpture through such broad categories as commemorative, religious, aesthetic, whimsical, and abstract/contemporary. In addition, the book includes a county-by-county accounting of the location of each outdoor sculpture and approximately 200 photographs.

In addition to describing each outdoor sculpture, and its location, the book offers biographical details on a large number of the artists responsible for crafting the artwork.

“My purpose,” notes Greiff, “is to open the public’s eyes to the amazing and growing collection of public sculptures in Indiana—for I firmly believe that simply seeing more art helps to educate the viewer as well as the reader to understand at least some of the many reasons why sculpture is erected and to encourage observers to become more discerning.”

approx 350 pp • © 2005 • cloth • 200 half tones illustrations • ISBN: 0-87195-180-0