Hoosier History Live

To spotlight seven diverse Hoosiers who, amid great personal sacrifices, served in  World War I , Hoosier History Live will feature as guests the Bloomington-based director and a producer of a new documentary that features them. Six soldiers and a nurse from Indiana are the focus of " Over There: Hoosier Heroes of the Great War ", which is expected to be shown on various PBS-TV stations across Ind...

Before the dust settles on last month's Indianapolis 500,  Hoosier History Live  will explore historic medical treatment, advances in care and safety issues at the  Indianapolis Motor Speedway . Last  year , we explored the first infield hospital at the  Indianapolis Motor Speedway  and other medical developments and challenges by time traveling to the opening of the world-famous racetrack in 1909...

As by far the biggest of the  Indiana Dunes  on  Lake Michigan , the legendary  Hoosier Slide  was a national tourist attraction. Sometimes likened to a sandy version of a Swiss Alp, the massive Hoosier Slide near  Michigan City, Ind. , stood 18.5 stories high and was the setting for wedding ceremonies, picnics and endless frolicking, with climbers and gawkers traveling by train or ferry to the to...

During a  show  five years ago, Hoosier History Live explored the connections between Indiana and  Ellis Island , the gateway to America for generations of immigrants. The receiving center for aspiring Americans in New York Harbor opened in 1892 during the administration of  President Benjamin Harrison , the only president elected from Indiana. As a kind of prequel to that show, in this encore of...

For a deep dive into the histories of  Geist Reservoir  and  Morse Reservoir , which supply much of the water for residents of the greater Indianapolis area,  Hoosier History Live  will plunge into several questions. Were you aware that a historic village called  Germantown , which was founded during the 1830s and flourished for more than 100 years, was subsumed to create Geist? Do some of Germant...

or a deep dive into the histories of  Geist Reservoir  and  Morse Reservoir , which supply much of the water for residents of the greater Indianapolis area,  Hoosier History Live  will plunge into several questions. Were you aware that a historic village called  Germantown , which was founded during the 1830s and flourished for more than 100 years, was subsumed to create Geist? Do some of Germanto...

Feast on this: His name is  Chadwick Gillenwater . But children across Indiana know him as bow-tied  Professor   Watermelon , the performance name he uses when he travels to schools, libraries, museums, summer camps and historic sites for presentations about history and writing. At various historic sites, Chadwick, a veteran teacher and school librarian, also offers workshops for children called ...

From the small city of  Ligonier  in northeastern Indiana to major cities including  Indianapolis  and  South Bend , waves of Jewish immigration had, in a range of ways, an impact between 1840 and the 1920s on their communities. Immigrants came to the Hoosier state from various homelands, with a Jewish teenager who fled the  Austro-Hungarian empire  eventually becoming one of the founders of the ...

As  Hoosier History Live  salutes spring, we will have another in our periodic series of call-in shows. During these shows, listeners are invited to call in with questions or insights about any aspects of Indiana's heritage. As a bonus, our host,  Nelson Price , is joined by a co-host; they interview each other in between fielding the phone calls. To celebrate spring, who better to join Nelson tha...

Nearly 120 generals during the Civil War had connections to the Hoosier state. They include some who were courageous, others who were colorful, and some who were controversial. One of the generals,  Solomon Meredith , was a Quaker who commanded the legendary  Iron Brigade  during the bloody  Battle of Gettysburg  in 1863. Another general,  Jefferson Columbus Davis  from  Clark County in southern I...

As we varoom toward racing festivities, Hoosier History Live will shift into reverse gear for an exploration of the rapid construction of the  Indianapolis Motor Speedway  in 1909. We also will spotlight early auto races at the Speedway that year, including some tragedies that preceded the successful inaugural  Indianapolis 500  in 1911. It took Speedway founder Carl Fisher  and his partners about...

Before the dust settles on the holiday season, Hoosier History Live will explore the impact of a man who, during a Christmas Eve visit to  Monument Circle  in the 1930s, found the center of Indianapolis "dark and depressing". So  Edward Pierre , an influential architect, crusaded for the first ornaments to be placed on trees at the  Soldiers and Sailors Monument  in 1947. This was decades before w...

Like clockwork every yuletide season, the town of  Santa Claus  in far-southwestern Indiana is in the national spotlight. Ever wonder about the history of the town in  Spencer County  that claims it has the only post office in the world with the Santa Claus name? Our host,  Nelson Price , will share insights about that during one of our periodic call-in shows. And it so happens that Nelson's co-ho...

The first Girl Scout troop in Indianapolis. The first African American woman to graduate from an Indiana college. A suffragist who became a top leader of women's groups in the state. And the founders of the first Black sorority at a predominantly white college in the country. All of those women and girls had a deep connection to  Irvington , the historic neighborhood on the eastside of Indianapoli...

A white clapboard chapel with a steeple and a historic cemetery in northern  Hamilton County  are the sites of cherished annual events known as "homecomings" that draw people from across the country. They come to honor the  Roberts Settlement , a historic farm community founded by free Black families in the 1830s who arrived from the South to start new lives on the Indiana frontier. After initial...

Multi-class basketball that began in the late 1990s killed attendance at games, particularly the tournaments. Girls basketball teams didn't exist at Indiana high schools before the early 1970s. And the first basketball game on Hoosier soil was played in 1894 at a YMCA in  Crawfordsville .     All of those are misconceptions, a basketball historian says. So, Hoosier History Live will explore prevai...

When he arrived in the brand new city of  Indianapolis  in 1821,  Calvin Fletcher  was nearly penniless. Yet he went on to become the first attorney in the new state capital city, a banker, a state legislator and a wealthy landowner. Fletcher, who was passionately anti-slavery, also became the first major civic leader in his adopted hometown. To top it off, Fletcher (1798-1866) wrote an astounding...

Because of a tragedy, a picturesque town with a Greek name (unusual for Indiana) has been in the national news for nearly six years. That's 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 have...

"This is a story about a Christmas (when) I really didn't know what I was doing.'' That's what a private in the Army infantry from southern Indiana wrote in his diary about Christmas Day of 1944, when, as a  POW  during  World War II , he was forced into a boxcar by German soldiers. Scott Thompson, who had grown up on a farm near  Evansville  and was captured during the  Battle of the Bulge , was...

Amid predictions that a recession is possible next year, Hoosier History Live will time travel to the Great Depression  and explore one of the two most consequential governors in Indiana history.  Paul V. McNutt , who was elected in 1932 (the same year that  Franklin D. Roosevelt  won the presidency), was even considered as a possible Democratic nominee eight years later for the nation's top offic...

Ever heard of a telephone installed in a mausoleum in case someone was buried alive and needed to call out for help? Did you know the first stewardess in the history of commercial airlines is buried in a Terre Haute  cemetery? And were you aware that the historic cemetery's office was built as a waiting station for Interurban passengers? Hoosier History Live  will be exploring all of these aspects...

Ever since the 1820s, when  David Buchanan  arrived by covered wagon in the Indianapolis area and opened a tavern before becoming a farmer, the Flanner and Buchanan families have been intertwined with city history.  Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers is a 142-year-old, family-owned business that began during an era when funerals and visitations typically were held in the parlors of private homes...

When well-known Indianapolis-based jazz violinist  Cathy Morris  was growing up in  Columbus, Ind. , she was influenced by a woman in the same house: her mother, a multimedia artist. Cathy, 61, has gone on to emulate her mother's multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to her performing and recording career (she plays the electric violin), Cathy is a producer and a composer. She founded  Arts Wit...

With the  Indiana Legislature  in full swing, it's ideal timing to spotlight the  Indiana State Capitol , including history stories from its top (the dome) to its bottom (the cavernous basement, which once held everything from cannon balls to bathtubs for legislators and secret staircases). We also will time travel to an era before the current  Statehouse , built of limestone, opened in 1888. Befo...

Getting a jump on  Women's History Month ,  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...