31 ways to experience the humanities

October is Arts & Humanities Month, which means 31 days of thinking, reading, talking and listening. Check out our guide to humanities experiences around Indiana for each day of the month.

Here are some of my favorites:

IDADA (Indianapolis Downtown Arts and Dealers Association) First Friday tour. There’s no better way to spend a Friday night in Indy than to wander from gallery to studio to performance space. Start at our place—the Meredith Nicholson Home (1500 N. Delaware St.)—for a discussion about how schools can serve as catalysts for urban renewal.

Wallow in your Hoosier-ness. Indiana authors, artists, musicians and poets will showcase their talents at An Evening in Brown County on Sunday, Oct. 11. I’m looking forward to Hoosier wine and beer, plus tapas made from locally grown food. Get more info here.

Travel back in time. Explore the religious and visual culture of 17^th-century Spain and Latin America–for free. Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World, opens Oct. 11 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It features 80 works of art, including the legendary Crown of the Andes, an actual crown set with 450 emeralds.

Start a book club. If you’re like me and haven’t joined or started a club yet, it’s time. The Indiana Humanities Council will even lend you the books, for free. Check out our lending library.

Take a road trip. Take advantage of the great weather and scenery that October offers and head north, south, east and west, knowing that wherever you go, you’ll find a great museum or Hoosier landmark.

Meandering Indiana 16 – Spencer County

Spencer County, Indiana, is Abraham Lincoln country, the locale of his boyhood home. In preparation for the Lincoln Bicentennial, I have had the opportunity to take many trips to Spencer County, but two were especially memorable.

My first visit to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial was a tour guided by site superintendent Randy Wester. From the memorial building, with its large sculptured limestone panels depicting phases in Lincoln’s life, we walked across a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., then up a hill to the Nancy Hanks Lincoln gravesite. A sense of peacefulness and remembrance seemed to hold these places apart from time. Randy pointed out that the site was a National Memorial, not a park or a monument.

The second occasion I remember vividly was a tour led by Bill Bartelt, author of There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana Youth. Bill, a teacher who spent many summers as a park ranger, had studied not only the life of Lincoln but also the land he must have walked in southern Indiana.

Crossing over to Lincoln State Park, which adjoins the National Memorial, Bill led us to a wide path in the woods that was once a primitive road connecting one frontier settlement to another. As we stood among the trees, with hardly anything modern in sight, it was not difficult to imagine a teenaged boy of the 1820s, sauntering along this path on his way back from an errand.

Last night Ken Burns’ latest project, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea premiered on PBS. Lincoln Boyhood was the first national park established in Indiana when, in 1962, it was transferred from the jurisdiction of the state to the National Park Service. Not only are our national parks amazing resources that we all can share, but we can also access NPS.gov, a rich online resource for discovering history, exploring nature, and continuing to learn about our country.

Find Peace in the Resource Connection

Today is the International Day of Peace, so we took a look at the various resources in the Resource Connection that centered on learning about peace. Here’s what we found:

• An excerpt from George Rogers Clark’s memoir that details peacemaking with the Indians.
• An overview of the Fall Creek Massacre, which took place in Madison County, Indiana.
• President Woodrow Wilson’s 14-points speech for world peace.
• Eight U.S. soldiers, some who killed and some who said no, reveal their inner moral dilemmas in Soldiers of Conscience.
• A Road Map to Peace in the Middle East—Can it be followed?
• A lesson plan to investigate whether media play a role in wars and conflicts.

Plus, much, much more. Check out the more than 40 resources that investigate peacemaking (and lack thereof) from various perspectives at the Resource Connection.

What-are-you-reading-Wednesday: There I Grew Up

The long weekend gave me the chance to finish William E. Bartelt’s book on Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana years. At almost exactly the time when Indiana became a state (Dec. 1816), the Lincoln family moved across the Ohio River to their new home in southwestern Indiana. Abe was 7 years old. He remained a Hoosier until the Lincolns moved west to Illinois when he was 21.

Bartelt has collected much of the original source material related to what we know about Lincoln in Indiana, but he has also researched and interpreted those stories and testimonies, with additions and corrections. The result is a readable, well-illustrated text that describes this extraordinary individual in the context of his family, his community, and his moment in Indiana history.

Hoosier Youth by Manship

Lincoln wrote about himself: “We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.” And also: “He settled in an unbroken forest; and the clearing away of surplus wood was the great task ahead. A. though very young, was large of his age, and had an axe put into his hands at once . . . .” The natural environment and frontier conditions were primitive, but soon a small community around Little Pigeon Creek began to form as families claimed land in early Perry and Spencer counties.

If young Abe had an axe in one hand, he had a book in the other. With little formal education, he nonetheless learned to read, write, and cipher. Determined to improve himself, he read all the books he could beg or borrow. Bartelt provides a list of books he probably read, including Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and biographies of Washington and Ben Franklin. Abe also read newspapers and wrote essays (on temperance and animal cruelty, for example). Popular and well able to hold an audience, he used his natural gifts to entertain and to persuade by making speeches and telling stories.

It was both a privilege and a pleasure to spend some time getting to know a young man on his way to history and a young state on its way from woods to fields.

William E. Bartelt. “There I Grew Up”: Remembering Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana Youth. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2008.

Conner Prairie’s Spirit of the Prairie Award: Honoring America’s Innovators

By Ellen M. Rosenthal, President and CEO of Conner Prairie

As the President & CEO of Indiana’s only Smithsonian affiliate, Conner Prairie, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to honor some extraordinary American trailblazers at this year’s Spirit of the Prairie awards dinner, September 12.

The annual Spirit of the Prairie dinner is Conner Prairie’s opportunity to recognize those who have created a distinctly American story with their vision, passion, dedication and courage. The honorees exemplify the spirit of endeavor that created the rich and ever changing tapestry of the United States.

Through the years Conner Prairie has given the Spirit of the Prairie Award to remarkable Hoosiers, talented, accomplished people with foresight, brilliance and perseverance. I’ve always loved the awards dinner, but I’ve never been as excited as I am this year.

Hoosier Heritage honorees include international opera star and Indianapolis native Angela Brown; Emmy-nominated journalist Janet Langhart Cohen; preservationist, philanthropist and Indiana native Richard E. Ford; and U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar.

This year Conner Prairie has created a new award reaching beyond Indiana’s borders to honor someone who has fanned widespread interest in American history. The inaugural History Innovator Award will go to Pleasant Rowland, founder of Pleasant Company now known as American Girls, to whom I have a personal connection. In 1985 I was hired as one of several consultants to advise on the development of the history based stories and dolls. Quite frankly, I never suspected that Americans would be as wildly enthusiastic about the products as they turned out to be. Pleasant introduced an entire generation of girls to stories of American life in the past 250 years. I’ve waited nearly a quarter of a century to thank Pleasant for pursuing a dream that has had positive impact on our country – and on my life. Because of Pleasant, I learned that it’s the story that matters in inspiring an interest in history. The details, the facts are essential – but only as background.

It takes countless hours of dedication, work and commitment by our staff, volunteers and board members to pull together such a momentous event. We hope that you will join us for this truly amazing celebration as we honor an astonishing group of people on September 12. The cocktail reception begins at 5:45 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. For additional information and reservations, please visit connerprairie.org/spirit.aspx or call 317-776-6000 before September 4.

As we begin to think about awards for 2010, we would love to hear who you would choose as an American trailblazer.

Food for Thought: Indiana’s Food Culture

If you stopped by our booth at the Indiana State Fair during Hoosier Heritage Day and added your hometown’s food treasures to our map of Indiana–thanks! We’ve compiled some of the data into a map of Indiana’s food culture and identified things like food festivals and agribusinesses, as well as livestock and agricultural hot spots. Take a look, here.

Then, add your feedback below. We couldn’t fit everything on the map–and for that, we apologize. But, please continue to help us out by identifying what’s missing in your neck of the woods.

The Three Great Myths in Indiana History

Here are the “Three Great Myths in Indiana history” as reported by those who wander the state talking to Hoosiers, looking for and hearing all kinds of stories for the radio show Hoosier History Live!   Some are accurate and some are not so accurate. 

1. ”My house was on the Underground Railroad.”

2. “John Dillinger robbed this building and escaped out the back window.”

3. “The meaning of the Indiana State Seal is that–  a woodsman has to get up pretty darn early in the morning to catch a buffalo in Indiana!”

This week’s show addressese one of those myth vs. reality topics: the Underground Railroad.

Oral histories, diaries, notations in family Bibles, and letters. All of those have been crucial in figuring out which historic homes, inns, taverns, and other buildings may have been stops on the Underground Railroad – and which ones probably were not, according to Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc. But exaggerations and misconceptions abound. To hear some folks tell it, almost all 19th century homes with cellars, attics or other hiding places were used in the crusade to help African-Americans escape from slave owners in the South. How do we separate myth from fact? How can you verify folklore about an old building? And did you know that one of the nation’s best-known abolitionists and women’s rights activists Sojourner Truth had connections to Indiana?

To share insights on these and other aspects of the Underground Railroad, historic researcher and genealogist Dona Stokes-Lucas of Indianapolis will join Nelson in studio. Dona, who is on the board of directors of Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc., is helping organize a national Underground Railroad Conference 2009 set for Sept. 16-19 at the Hilton Indianapolis North, 8181 N. Shadeland Ave. Indiana Freedom Trails is a diverse group that seeks to identify, verify and preserve Hoosier sites that were part of the Underground Railroad network. If you ever have wondered about – or heard folklore concerning – a historic site and its possible link to the Underground Railroad, this compelling show will be for you.

Tune in at 11:30 a.m. Sat. on WICR 88.7 fm or listen online anywhere during the live broadcast by clicking here at  WICR.

Meandering Indiana 15 – Posey County

Hoosiers call it the Pocket or perhaps the Boot (although in that case it should be the Toe), the farthest southwestern corner of the state. The first time I went there, I was amazed by the fact that it was actually 20 minutes past Evansville, which scarcely seemed credible.

But New Harmony in Posey County is very popular with the history crowd, due to both its background and its facilities. The town had two lives in the nineteenth century. First, it was founded as a utopian religious community. At that time it was on the state’s main drag (the Wabash River), just a stone’s throw from the nation’s superhighway to the West (the Ohio River).

New Harmony originated as a German religious community, founded in 1814 and led by George Rapp. When the Harmonists decided to relocate to Pennsylvania, the settlement was bought by Robert Owen and William Maclure who brought in a “boatload of knowledge” (scientists and educators) and established a community of learning. In a sense that legacy remains today. With its nineteenth-century buildings and its conference center, Historic New Harmony (a program of the University of Southern Indiana and the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites) is a prime destination for gatherings and for tourism.

Staying in the New Harmony Inn, I’ve enjoyed the period furniture and the peaceful retreat setting. Perhaps my favorite building, though, is the Working Men’s Institute, the oldest continuously operating library in Indiana (established 1838), which also has an archive, museum, and art gallery.

New Harmony, however, is not the county seat of Posey County. That distinction goes to Mount Vernon, one of Indiana’s three official ports. (The other two are Burns Harbor on Lake Michigan, and Jeffersonville, upstream on the Ohio River.) As a port, Mount Vernon is protected by the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District, headquartered in New Orleans, and it was one of 19 stops for the Indiana Humanities Council’s Always a River floating museum.

So while Posey County may seem to be tucked away in a remote corner of Indiana, from a maritime point of view it’s on the (water)way to everywhere.

Indiana State Fair and the Resource Connection

One of the great pleasures of late summer in Indiana is getting to visit the Indiana State Fair, which takes place from August 7-23.

Whether you are taking the family for elephant ears and corn dogs or planning a night out for a great concert, there is so much to see and do during the weeks of this yearly event. The Indiana Humanities Council will even have a booth this year for Hoosier Heritage Day on Aug. 13, so make sure you stop by for a visit. And, check out the model barn, debuting on the 13th, thanks in part to a Humanities Initiative Grant from the Council.

If you look up the Indiana State Fair in the Resource Connection, you get some interesting results, including the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library’s Kid’s Info Page on the fair, an 1887 Sandborn Map of the fairgrounds, and several items from Traditional Arts of Indiana, including the Profiles of 2006 State Fair Masters. Check it out for yourself and do a little research before you visit the fair this year; it might make your experience even better!

Hoosier Cabinets “freed the housewife”

 By Molly Armstrong Head, producer and development director of Hoosier History Live!

An example of a Hoosier Cabinet. Photo courtest of Wikipedia.

I never knew people could get in such a tizzy about Hoosier Cabinets. After I heard Nancy Hiller, author of The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History (IU Press) and a Bloomington cabinetmaker, talk about the social history of the Hoosier Cabinet with Nelson Price on Hoosier History Live! radio show this week, I called my friend Glynis, who has a “Sellers” in her 1920s era kitchen. Her kitchen is so crammed with stuff that you can hardly realize that there is a valuable antique in there. Glynis had listened to the show sticking her radio out the back window; she lives in the country about 50 miles from WICR’s radio tower. (Modern humans can hear the show online anywhere it airs, but Glynis is no-tech.)

As I learned on the show, these marvelous inventions were marketed in the early part of the 20^th century as “a boon to women.” And they sold like hot cakes. They had spice racks, storage bins, a built-in flour sifter, a pull-out counter. And you could sit down in front of them to do your work. They centralized the food storage and preparation area, saving many steps.

More than two million Hoosier cabinets had been sold by 1920, meaning that they could be found in one in ten American homes. One old ad exclaimed, “Lincoln had freed the slaves, and now the Hoosier has freed the housewife from unnecessary drudgery!” 

Now, I reflect that, for the last fifteen years or so, designer kitchens, food prep, gardening, kitchen gadgets, and haute cuisine seem to be absolutely the yuppie, upscale thing. 

Although the Hoosier kitchen sure has changed, I think our society will always believe that having all the right stuff in your kitchen tells people that you have “arrived.” (Where, exactly, I’m not quite sure.)  

Next week (June 13), join Hoosier History Live! at 11:30 a.m. on WICR FM (88.7) to hear 90-year-old P.E. MacAllister reflect on civic history.