Nathan Schrader '10 - As I looked at my clock this morning at 8:35 and thought, “Sweet, I’ve got ten more minutes until I have to get up.” But something told me I had other things to do today… oh yeah, we’re going to the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana State Library in Indy. Right. So I fell out of bed as fast as I could, ran to the bus, and we were off.

When we arrived, we received materials related to our topics. However, because I changed my topic to another subject, the resource was not of any importance. But we came prepared. The society is somewhat technical with a “call slip” system. So I gave the historian my slips and went to work.

The materials I received in the historical society and the library were newspaper clippings. I found these useful in my research of John Irwin Miller, the man in responsible for creating the unique landscape of Columbus, Indiana. As we sifted through the bookstores, I found a book on both Madison and Columbus. It was somewhat upsetting though when I found five or six books about high school basketball in Indiana which was related to my original topic. But all in all today was a productive day.

The facilities and what they had to offer were very impressive. The historical society was full of rich wood and marble floors, as any museum should, and it was right along a river. Historic quotes were written about the walls and steps. It was a beautiful place. The materials were very surprising, such as a newspaper article from the 1950s about the architecture of Columbus and J. Irwin Miller’s thoughts behind his funding. When I found this article, it was buried in a ten pound folder full of clippings on Columbus. Two resources such as the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana State Library are something every Hoosier researcher should explore.

Editor's Note: All nine students participating in the Present Indiana Summer Internship traveled to Indianapolis to do research on their projects at the Historical Society and State Library.

In photos: Top left, Matt Vest does research at the Indiana Historical Society on his project studying German Immigration into Indiana. Lower right, Robert Campbell reads up on the Battle of Tippecanoe.