Moment of Indiana History
podcasts Archive
March 17, 2008
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Dr. Sarah Stockton
Addressing the Indiana State Medical Society in 1885, Doctor Mary Thomas reminded the gathering, “A year ago there was a lady physician appointed in the insane asylum…Today I met the Superintendant, Dr. Fletcher, and asked him if Dr. Sarah Stockton was a success in the asylum? And he said, “A complete success!” I am thankful […]
March 10, 2008
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Mary Ritter Beard
A feminist who eventually opposed the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, Mary Ritter Beard was nonetheless a pioneering scholar and proponent of women’s history. The texts she co-authored with her husband, not to mention fifteen titles of her own, made significant strides in incorporating cultural, social and economic trends into the popular interpretation of American history.
March 3, 2008
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Xenia Miller
Women’s History Month 2008 begins on a wistful note in Columbus with the news of Xenia Miller’s passing February 19 th. Born in 1917, Miller was a major philanthropist whose life story dovetailed with many of that city’s significant figures, trends and landmarks.
February 25, 2008
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Dr. King and the Little Five
A group of black students committed to achieving racial justice through nonviolent means was already in existence at Indiana University Bloomington by the spring of 1968. But the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4 th in Memphis, Tennessee galvanized black activism on campus.
February 18, 2008
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No More Beauty Queens
Although race relations on most college campuses in the 1960s were volatile, the Bloomington campus of Indiana University was relatively progressive in attempting to establish civil rights for all of its students. Despite the state’s Southern ties, and the sometime pervasiveness of the Ku Klux Klan throughout Indiana government, Bloomington provided a less hostile environment for blacks than other places in the state.
February 11, 2008
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Leveling the Playing Field
One of the ways black students encountered racism in Bloomington in the 1940s was in its eating establishments, many of which illegally refused them service. One undergraduate student was particularly frustrated not to be able to get a quick meal between classes. Although George Taliaferro’s life-sized photo hung inside the Book Nook on Indiana Avenue, the defensive back who had led the Hoosiers to their first Big Ten victory in 1945 had to trek all the way to the west side of town to get fed.
February 4, 2008
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The Father of the School of Law
Long before racial tensions came to a head in the 1960s, the quest for integration was underway on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. Important strides were made during the tenure of the university’s eleventh president, Herman B. Wells.
January 28, 2008
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Dillinger – The Hoosier
Although he met his end in front of a Chicago movie house on July 22, 1934, the nation’s first Public Enemy Number One eventually found his way back home again to Indiana. Alongside Eli Lilly, James Whitcomb Riley, and President Benjamin Harrison, legendary gangster John Dillinger is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis .
January 21, 2008
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Dillinger – Movie Goer
Indiana has consistently captured the attention of Hollywood with its legendary athletic figures and traditions. Such films as Knute Rockne: All-American, The Crowd Roars, Breaking Away and Hoosiers have lent a glamour to Hoosier sports once reserved for its gangsters.
January 14, 2008
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Shortridge High School
Indianapolis-born Kurt Vonnegut always placed his alma mater--Shortridge High School--beyond the range of his trademark slings and arrows.
