Moment of Indiana History
shows Archive
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.
December 8, 2008
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A fruit by any other name…the “Indiana banana”
Although found in twenty six eastern states, the pawpaw tree might be particularly beloved to Hoosiers for the colloquial names given to its fruit. Known alternately as the “Indiana banana,” or the “Hoosier banana,” the tree Asimina triloba produces the largest edible tree fruit native to the U.S. The only temperate relative of a tropical […]
December 1, 2008
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I ride a bike, and I vote
Grassroots organizing. Alternative transportation. Greenways and parks. Many components of contemporary political campaigns seem to have been borrowed from the platforms and strategies that worked well in Indiana in the 1890’s.
