Hoosier History Live

Now that awards season is underway in Hollywood – Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday – our spotlight will be on movie and TV directors with Indiana connections. The filmmakers range from directors of movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood such as the holiday classic " Miracle on 34th Street " (1947) and " To Have and Have Not " (1944) to popular hits like " The Amazing Spiderman " (2012). "...

Who was Bertha Ross? A park on the north west side of Indianapolis is named in her honor. Namesakes of other city parks include a superstar in baseball's old Negro League, a beloved cook at Flanner House and one of the first Black officers in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Our show on Saturday (Jan. 13) will spotlight "African American namesakes of Indy parks", with Deputy Mayor Judith Thomas...

Because of a tragedy, a picturesque town with a Greek name (unusual for Indiana) has been in the national news for more than six years. That has often obscured the colorful heritage that  Delphi  in northern Indiana has reclaimed in captivating ways, including cruises on a portion of the former  Wabash & Erie Canal , restored historic structures and a park showcasing the waterway's heritage, that...

He quit school after the fifth grade to ride the rails, so  Henry Ulen  was an unlikely Hoosier to become an international business tycoon. Ulen also created and became the namesake of an unusual small town that's surrounded by the city of  Lebanon  in  Boone County . In this encore broadcast of a show from  2022 , History Live will take a dual look at Henry Ulen, an industrialist, and the town of...

Whether you have been naughty or nice during this yuletide season, have you wondered how a sleepy village founded in southwestern Indiana during the 1840s became the country's only town that has a post office with the Santa Claus name? Hundreds of thousands of "Dear Santa'' letters from children around the world have been delivered to Santa Claus, Ind., since the early 1900s. And the Spencer Count...

With construction finally underway of a new home for the  Indiana Archives , which include a trove of historic material such as the transcripts of landmark court cases, Hoosier History Live will follow up a show we did  last year  about the status of the archives. In addition to highlighting aspects of the $102 million structure being built on the downtown canal in Indianapolis, we also will spotl...

Once there was a majestic courthouse in Marion County designed in the Second Empire style with a clock tower, spire, cupolas and statues of Greek goddesses. Once, where Butler University's campus is located today, there was a spacious park, with a boathouse for canal rides, an outdoor band shell for concerts, a roller coaster and diving horses. And once there was a long covered bridge that extende...

With the approach of Thanksgiving, Hoosier History Live will spotlight the trail-blazing woman who wrote the first cookbook published in Indiana. Also on the menu: We will explore food fashions of the mid-18th century era when the cookbook came out. The author was  Angelina Collins  (1805-1885), who was living in  New Albany, Ind. , when her popular cookbook was published in 1851. Titled "Mrs. Col...

It may be easy to unfurl a flag, but there sure are a lot of twists in the story of how the current Indiana state flag became the official symbol. At one point, even the  Stars and Stripes  (a k a the American flag) was the official flag for the Hoosier state. The backstory about the state flag and several untold, related stories are described in a new book,  The Indiana Flag: Who Really Designed...

It may be easy to unfurl a flag, but there sure are a lot of twists in the story of how the current Indiana state flag became the official symbol. At one point, even the  Stars and Stripes  (a k a the American flag) was the official flag for the Hoosier state. The backstory about the state flag and several untold, related stories are described in a new book,  The Indiana Flag: Who Really Designed...

A rotating series on Hoosier History Live delves into the ethnic heritage of (and immigration to) Indiana. We have explored dozens of ethnic heritage groups, ranging from shows about  Ukrainian immigration  and  Scottish heritage  to the state's early  Mexican heritage  and the  Arab heritage in Indianapolis . Many of the immigrants and refugees become U.S. citizens at naturalization ceremonies he...

It's a creepy chapter of Indiana's history, but probably appropriate to explore during the season known for all things ghastly. Graverobbing in central Indiana had been an "open secret" for decades before several arrests in 1902 and subsequent trials drew national attention, according to  Chris Flook , a public historian and senior lecturer at Ball State University's department of media. Rings of...

A controversy about religion divided churches, communities and even families in southern Indiana during the early 1800s. The conflict among Baptists even affected the church that young  Abraham Lincoln  attended with his family in what is now  Spencer County . Our guest  Randy Mills , a retired distinguished professor at  Oakland City University  in southern Indiana, has researched and written abo...

Some of their creations are gone, with parking lots or modern structures currently on the sites. But some of the distinctive work of historic Indiana architects still stands in the town of  Madison , the city of  Evansville  and historic neighborhoods in Indianapolis including  Herron-Morton Place  and  Woodruff Place . The Indiana Album  and various partners are creating an online resource with b...

Snicker if you must, because that's an understandable reaction to an annual tradition in Northwest Indiana. At the  Pierogi Drop  every New Year's Eve in the city of  Whiting , a 10-foot tall version of the dumpling associated with Polish cuisine is dropped into a boiling cooking pot at the stroke of midnight. And in the summer, the  Pierogi Fest  in Whiting sometimes draws more than 350,000 enthu...

Following up last week's show about the lavish  French Lick Springs Hotel ,  Hoosier History Live  will focus on the southern Indiana town's other claim to national fame.  French Lick , of course, is the hometown of the basketball superstar often called "Larry Legend". He also became known as "The Hick from French Lick". Larry Bird  persevered through significant challenges in his youth (including...

There's a significant connection between a lavish resort hotel in southern Indiana and an Irish immigrant who became the mayor of  Indianapolis  as well as a powerful political boss in the early 1900s. There's also a connection to a major amphitheater that was dedicated at  Riverside Park  in the summer of 2021 in honor of the colorful former mayor, who was known as the "father of the Indianapolis...

Who knows if the soil is rich at the site that's now  White River State Park ? Regardless, the history of the site near downtown Indianapolis that's now a 250-acre cultural campus certainly can be described as rich and mighty colorful. Beginning as a fishing ground for Native Americans and encompassing a long era in which the area was industrial, bleak and unappealing, the White River State Park s...

Even those who only dabble in Indiana's art history likely know about the  Hoosier Group  of painters, including  T.C. Steele , who drew national fame. But another group of painters actually formed the state's first colony of artists. The  Richmond Group Artists  formed in the late 19th century in far-eastern Indiana, traveling along the Whitewater River and painting on weekends. In 1898, they fou...

Once upon a historic time, a touring circus started spending the winter in the Indiana city of  Peru . Circus performers, exotic animals (camels, tigers, ostriches, hippos and more) and equipment would "winter" and train in the town in  Miami County . Those beginnings in the late 1800s kick-started a heritage that flourishes, in a different way, to this day in Peru, which trumpets itself as the "C...

Even though a couple from the town of  Auburn  in far-northeastern Indiana married after  World War II , their letters included in a new book, " Army Guy, Red Cross Gal ", are not love letters. Because they weren't even dating each other before they went overseas, their descriptive letters were not written to each other. Instead, the "Army guy", who became a military police lieutenant with Gen. Ge...

Roadhouses, saloons and gambling were part of the wildness during the late 1800s and early 1900s at  Brighton Beach , a long-forgotten, notorious area just west of downtown  Indianapolis . Newspapers in the 1890s called Brighton Beach (where enticements included "chuck-a-luck", a game of chance played with dice) "one of the toughest places in town". Ed Fujawa , an Indianapolis attorney and founder...

Strike up the band. But not necessarily a marching band. For this Hoosier History Live show exploring Indiana's music heritage during what is known as the "vinyl era" (generally defined as 1950 to 1990), the most appropriate band probably would be one that played "rock and roll", as the music was called during its early decades. Histories of other genres during the vinyl era also are being include...

Almost ever since the city of  Indianapolis  was platted in 1821, a site along the  White River  has been distinctive for various reasons. It started as a burial site, then multiple graveyards that became known collectively as  Greenlawn Cemetery , where thousands of early residents were buried. Beginning in 1917,  Diamond Chain  had a manufacturing plant on the site just southwest of downtown tha...

They explored and advocated for the protection of a range of aspects of Indiana's natural heritage, from birds and other wildlife to flowers and plants, including ferns. In many cases, they lived during eras (including the late 1800s and early 1900s) before the word "environmentalist" even was used. Some of them were called "conservationists". They were often self-taught in our natural heritage, w...