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Moment of Indiana History

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A black and white line drawing of an early steam locomotive stopped at a station labeled "DEPOT." The train's engine features a large, funnel-shaped smokestack emitting a thick plume of dark smoke. Several figures are present: a man in a top hat and a woman in a Victorian-style dress stand on the station platform, while workers near the back of the engine appear to be loading wood or coal .
Eon Images
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First railroad in Indiana, ca. 1851. From an illustration in a memoir by Oregon Trail pioneer Ezra Meeker.
It’ll Never Happen Here: Fast Trains and Indiana Politics
Oliver Smith got elected to Congress when his opponent pledged support for railroads, which in 1826 Indiana were not only nonexistent but almost mythological.
  • A close-up view of a large collection of vintage envelopes and letters with various stamps and handwritten addresses.
    Correspondence Course
    Mail delivery in Indiana was uncertain until 1800, when the postal service established a weekly there-and-back-again route from Vincennes to Louisville.
  • A black and white photograph featuring the Attica High School girls' basketball team. The eight girls are dressed in Edwardian sports attire. Posed on either side of the them are two adults dressed in formal wear.
    archive photo
    A Modest Start To A Storied Tournament
    Though the IHSAA attracted national attention when single-class basketball ended, Indiana's first statewide high school tournament was less than newsworthy.
  • A watercolor painting depicts a 19th-century frontier town square. A large, multi-story white building with a central belfry-style tower dominates the center-left background. Several smaller wooden buildings and log cabins are scattered around a large, open dirt area. In the foreground, a low wooden fence separates the viewer from the scene. Several figures are visible, including people on horseback and others standing or walking.
    Old World Royalty In New Harmony
    Prince Maximilian's journals are a significant record of the intellectual life of New Harmony after its famous years as an experimental utopian community.

"Moment of Indiana History" was a weekly two-minute radio program exploring Indiana History. The series was a production of WFIU Public Radio in partnership with the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations (IPBS).

The program began as a co-production of WFIU, Bloomington, and WBAA, West Lafayette as a module to air on IPBS radio stations. From 2007 to 2014, the series was produced by WFIU for broadcast by IPBS stations as well as other entities interested in Indiana history. Now being re-released every Wednesday.

  • Dedication ceremony, Indianapolis Senate Avenue YMCA, 1913. George Knox, one of the founders of the branch, stands at the far left; to his right are Madam C. J. Walker, Freeman B. Ransom (attorney for the Walker company), special guest Booker T. Washington, Alexander Manning (editor of Colored World newspaper), Dr. Joseph H. Ward, R. W. Bullock (secretary of the Louisville YMCA), and Thomas Taylor (Senate Avenue secretary).
    Faburn DeFrantz: A Lifetime Of Leadership For Racial Progress
    “Little progress ‘happens’," stated Faburn DeFrantz. "Usually it must be wrested from influences that—either belligerently or indifferently—deny it.”
  • A large, historic, red brick church building with a brown shingle roof and tall arched windows, surrounded by bare trees and a grassy lawn with a curved path.
    An English Abolitionist Tours Antebellum Indiana
    Candler was favorably impressed with the “young and vigorous city” of Indianapolis, but soundly disapproved of the legislature's attitude toward slavery.
  • An illustration of a large Wide Awake parade in a 19th-century city. Dozens of men in military-style caps and capes march through a crowded street, carrying glowing oil torches and banners. A prominent banner in the background features a portrait of Abraham Lincoln topped by an eagle. Spectators line the sidewalks and lean out of building windows to watch the procession, which is shrouded in the smoke and light of the torches.
    The Election Riot of 1876
    Although the violence of the Election Riot of 1876 was not repeated, black voters continued to endure intimidation at the polls.
  • a broadside (poster) calling for a meeting of the Free State Party, which was formed to support Kansas entering the Union as a free state. The convention was held on September 5, 1855, in Big Springs, Kansas Territory.
    A Pocket Of Abolitionism In Fort Wayne
    The short-lived "Fort Wayne Standard" suggests that Indiana, despite its mostly conservative political leanings, was also home to more radical political views.
  • Work at Kingsbury was dirty, difficult, and dangerous, and African American employees were consistently assigned to the most hazardous tasks.
    The Kingsbury Ordnance Plant
    Work at the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant was dirty, difficult, and dangerous, and African American employees were consistently assigned to the most hazardous tasks.
  • A black and white photograph of a scene from an opera performance, Madama Butterfly, on a stage set with Japanese-style screens. Two women in traditional kimonos are depicted; the woman on the left is singing expressively, while the woman on the right stands beside her with her hands clasped.
    The Desegregating Diva
    Camilla Williams was the first black woman singer to appear with a major national opera company, nearly ten years before Marion Anderson's debut at the Met .
  • A black and white photograph of artist T. C. Steele and his wife Selma Neubacher Steele sitting outdoors on a wooden bench or chair. Selma, wearing a light-colored dress and sun hat, sits on the left, looking toward Steele. Steele sits on the right, wearing a light-colored shirt, suspenders, and boots, with one leg crossed over the other and his foot resting on the bench. They are seated in a grassy area with dense foliage behind them.
    Steele’s Magnolia
    In the spring of 1908, Selma Steele began planting gardens—a passion that would become her own artistic contribution to the House of the Singing Winds.
  • A detail from a mural showing robed figures of the Ku Klux Klan gathered around a burning cross. The scene includes a figure on a horse and a woman in the foreground
    Slaying The Dragon
    From small beginnings in 1922, the Ku Klux Klan had attracted an estimated thirty percent of all white males in the Hoosier state onto its membership rolls.
  • A red brick building with multiple towers and a central dome. The building has a Romanesque Revival architectural style and was formerly the Central Avenue United Methodist Church.
    The Second Life of an Indianapolis Landmark
    As demographic change altered the landscape of downtown Indianapolis, the church that had housed Indiana's largest Methodist congregation faced demolition.
  • A faded and creased handwritten letter on a single sheet of paper. The handwriting is in cursive. In the middle of the page, there is a printed illustration of a woman in a classical robe, holding a banner that says "UNION FOREVER" and standing on a base that says "AMERICA."
    A Shifting Role on the Civil War Homefront
    Women on the Civil War home front spent the war years occupied with matters outside the boundaries of what was then considered “women’s work”.

A Moment of Indiana History is a production of WFIU Public Radio in partnership with the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations. Research support comes from Indiana Magazine of History published by the Indiana University Department of History.