...General Indiana History

A Guide to Early Imprints at the Indiana Historical Society, 1619-1840

Leigh Darbee

Since 1922, when the Indiana Historical Society's William Henry Smith Memorial Library was established, librarians and curators have worked with prominent donors and booksellers to build a unique and significant collection of printed resources. The Guide to Early Imprints showcases the Society's holdings in many areas, including Old Northwest and early state history; early North American travel accounts and travelers' guides; natural history; Indiana imprints; and medical, agricultural, and transportation history. The Guide contains bibliographic descriptions of more than 1,800 books and pamphlets and includes two indexes, one listing titles and subjects and the other printers and publishers. The starting date of coverage in the Guide was determined by the earliest imprint in the collection, Voyages et decouvertures by Samuel de Champlain (Paris, 1619). The ending date is the same as that chosen by R. Carlyle Buley in his classic work, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840, published by the Society in 1950.

The description of each item includes, as appropriate, the following elements: author's full name and dates; title transcription; imprint statement; date of publication; statements of pagination and collation; description of illustrations; binding note; historical notes; source from which the item was acquired; citations of the item in standard bibliographies; and the library's call number. The book contains illustrations drawn from many of the items described.

1,064 pp. 2001. Cloth. ISBN 0-87195-157-6

An Introduction to the Prehistory of Indiana

James H. Kellar
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
A revised edition of the popular 1973 booklet that offers "answers to commonly asked questions about Indiana archaeology and prehistory."
78 pp. 1983, reprint 1993. Paper. Illustrations, bibliography, notes.

"In The Public Interest"
Oral Histories of Hoosier Broadcasters

Linda Weintraut and Jane R. Nolan
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
Drawn from an extensive oral history project, this work features twenty-seven oral histories of Hoosier broadcasters involved in a variety of broadcast occupations around Indiana from 1926 to the present. Topics explored are individual stations and the people who worked there, the evolution of technology and government regulation, the ethics of broadcasters, the impact of broadcasting on the public, and the future of the broadcast profession.
318 pp. 1999. Cloth. Bibliography, notes, index, illustrations.

Reviews.

The Indiana Territory, 1800-2000: A Bicentennial Perspective

Edited by Darrel E. Bigham

The Indiana Territory, 1800-2000: A Bicentennial Perspective originated in the June 2000 Indiana Territory Bicentennial Symposium held in Vincennes and sponsored by Historic Southern Indiana. This conference brought together highly respected scholars of midwestern history who were asked to reflect on aspects of life in the Indiana Territory. From that meeting Bigham compiled five important essays; two papers from a related program on William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, complete the volume.

Bigham offers a general introduction to the history of the Indiana Territory as well as brief previews of each essay. The topics cover relations with the British, race relations, slavery, religion, and commemorating the past. The essays that focus on William Henry Harrison address his stance toward Native Americans and evaluate his writings.

This volume offers a vivid picture of life in the Indiana Territory and is a fitting commemoration of the territory's bicentennial.

208 pp. 2001. Paper. Black-and-white photographs. ISBN 0-87195-155-X

A GUIDE TO INDIANA'S FAMOUS FOLKLORE SPOOKY SITES. 

By Wanda Lou Willis

A Traveler's Guide to Indiana State Historical Markers.

By Alan McPherson

Our Towns: Remembering Community in Indiana

John Bodnar
Published by the Indiana Historical Society

Based upon a series of interviews conducted for more than twenty years by the Oral History Research Center at Indiana University. The center interviewed residents in six Indiana towns-Paoli, Evansville, Indianapolis, Anderson, South Bend and Whiting. The book is an illustrated and interpretive history of Indiana in the twentieth century told and remembered by people who lived in the nineteenth state.

Edited by John Bodnar and partially funded by a Clio Grant from the Indiana Historical Society, Our Towns contains discussions of a wide assortment of issues that have been crucial to the history of the state and its people since 1900: family, community relations, economic change, migration from Kentucky and Tennessee, emigration from Europe, race relations, industrial expansion (especially in the auto industry), rural life, the impact of new cultural forms such as television, changing notions of religion, and much more.

Cloth, 256 pp, includes black and white illustrations.

Partnership for Posterity
The Correspondence of William Maclure and Marie Duclos Fretageot, 1820–1833

Edited by Josephine Mirabella Elliott
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
This documentary edition includes 478 letters or parts of letters written by William Maclure and Marie Duclos Fretageot to each other between the years 1820 and 1833. The collection not only traces a remarkable partnership but also contains information pertaining to life in the American "West," reformers and reform movements, and political events in the United States and other countries where Fretageot and Maclure found themselves. Above all, the letters from 1824 are especially important for understanding what happened at New Harmony when in 1825 Maclure joined Robert Owen in attempting an experiment in communitarian living. "A valuable reference work for those interested in education and reform ideas in the early republic." Journal of the Early Republic
1,151 pp. 1994. Cloth. Notes, illustrations, index.

Reviews.

Pathways to the Old Northwest
An Observance of the Bicentennial of the Northwest Ordinance

Essays by Cayton, Eccles, Finkelman, Furlong, Gray, Horsman, Hunter, and Rohrbough
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
In July of 1987 some of the nation's leading experts on the history and culture of the Northwest Territory gathered on the tiny campus of Franklin College of Indiana for a major celebration of the Northwest Ordinance. This volume presents eight of the lectures that were given there.
94 pp. 1988. Cloth. Notes and index.

Reviews.

Pride & Protest
The Novel in Indiana

Jeanette Vanausdall
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
Indiana's place in the broader context of America's literary heritage, in particular its fictional works, is examined in this IHS publication. The book explores such areas as the enduring themes in American literature that are represented by exemplary Indiana fiction; the major schools, movements, and genres in American literature to which Hoosiers have contributed; and the aspects of Indiana fiction that resonate with readers. Some of the works examined in the book are Eunice Beecher's From Dawn to Daylight, Edward Eggleston's The Hoosier School-Master, Charles Major's When Knighthood Was in Flower, James Maurice Thompson's Alice of Old Vincennes, Meredith Nicholson's The House of a Thousand Candles, Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and Ross Lockridge Jr.'s Raintree County.
169 pp. 1999. Cloth. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Reviews.

The Indiana Way
A State History

James H. Madison
Published by Indiana University Press
The Indiana Way covers the history of the Hoosier state from prehistoric times to the present, paying particular attention to the social, economic, cultural, and political contexts in which the state's significant historical figures, both heroes and villains, played out their roles.
364 pp. 1986. Paper. Illustrations, notes, maps, bibliography, index.

Reviews.

The Old Northwest
Pioneer Period, 1815–1840

R. Carlyle Buley
Published by the Indiana Historical Society
"A landmark in historical society sponsorship and an accomplishment of which any sponsor should be proud. Into two lavish volumes . . . Buley has packed an encyclopedia of the Northwest Territory. . . . Every Middle Westerner will find something of himself in this rich reconstruction." Saturday Review of Literature. "A minor masterpiece." American Historical Review. Republished 1983 in association with Indiana University Press.
Volume 1: xvi, 632 pp.; Volume 2: x, 686 pp. Cloth. Bibliographic essay, illustrations, notes, index.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 1950.

Reviews.

The State of Indiana History 2000

Edited by Robert M. Taylor, Jr.

The opening of the Indiana Historical Society's new headquarters and the closing of the century presented an opportunity to reflect on the status of Indiana history as it is taught and practiced today. On 2 July 1999 a stellar group of eighteen historians gathered at the Society for a conference titled "The State of Indiana History 2000," which resulted in this publication. The presenters discussed the evolution of their subject, its major themes and interpretations, the topic in its present guise, and what the future may hold. Academics, public historians, kindergarten through twelfth-grade teachers, and the general public will find these papers interesting and provocative.

Featured in the volume are papers by George Geib of Butler University on the myths of Indiana history, James Madison of Indiana University on the rationale for state history, and John Sugden on Indiana Native American history. Other topics included are transportation and economics by John Larson, historic preservation by James Glass, the arts by Jim May, labor by Nancy Gabin, the Civil War by Stephen Towne, ethnicity by James Divita, religion by Thomas Hamm, women by Anita Ashendel, agriculture by Paul Salstrom, African Americans by Richard Pierce, literature by Jeanette Vanausdall, history in the schools by Darrel Bigham, public history by Robert Barrows, and politics by Patrick Furlong.


497 pp. 2001. Cloth. Black-and-white photographs. ISBN 0-87195-153-3

A HISTORY OF THE Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

"How to print the news, raise hell, and really care about the community."