Moment of Indiana History
podcasts Archive
March 2, 2009
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The Father of Women’s Sports: Senator Birch Bayh
When ERA failed to be ratified, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh turned his energies to a law that would mandate equal opportunities for men and women in federally funded educational programs and activities. Title IX did not explicitly address athletics, but the impact of the 1972 legislation has been most visible in the context of high school and collegiate sports teams and programs.
February 11, 2009
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Re-Introducing a Hoosier Muralist: William Edouard Scott
Canvases by African-American painter Henry O. Tanner hang in the White House and the National Gallery of Art. Less familiar, however, is the name of Tanner’s protégé, once known as the “dean of Negro artists.”
January 27, 2009
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A treasure trove of Lincolniana
On the eve of the 16th President's bicentennial, it was determined that the world's largest private collection of Lincoln memorabilia would remain in Indiana.
January 20, 2009
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A Link in the Chain of Aeronautical History
Indiana’s place in the history of flight is well secured by the role played by French-born civil engineer Octave Chanute, whose experiments with non-motorized aircraft in Indiana’s dunes in the 1890s directly inspired the aeronautical innovators who followed.
January 13, 2009
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The Crazy Old Man of the Sand Dunes: Octave Chanute
Black and white photos of nattily dressed men and improbable-looking flying machines against a background of sand dunes instantly evoke the Wright Brothers’ pioneering flights at Kitty Hawk.
January 6, 2009
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Revolutionary Financier: Francis Vigo
A statue on Vincennes’ Wabash River front provides a clue about the source of a prominent place name in western Indiana. The figure represented, however, emerges riddled with contradictions.
December 30, 2008
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Making a deal, under a tree…
Given the drastic transformation of Indiana’s landscape over the course of its settlement, it seems unlikely that a single tree might serve as a bridge from the seventeenth century to the present.
