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Moment of Indiana History

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A colorized postcard showing a street view of the East Side Public Square in Bedford, Indiana during the early 1900s, featuring multi-story brick storefronts, horse-drawn carriages along the unpaved street, and text at the bottom reading "East Side Public Square, Bedford, Ind."
Competing For County Seat
Town boosters competed fiercely for the designation of county seat during the nineteenth century.
  • A vintage advertisement flyer for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performing on the R.C.A. Magic Key Hour. A black-and-white photograph shows a large orchestra on stage with their instruments, centered around conductor Fabien Sevitzky on a small podium. The text details the broadcast on the N.B.C. Blue Network, scheduled for Sunday, January 22, featuring tenor soloist Lauritz Melchior.
    Indianapolis’ First Maestro
    The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has firmly established itself on the US classical music scene, thanks in part to its first conductor, Fabien Sevitsky.
  • A long row of two-story concrete historic terrace townhomes under a evening sky, lined with bare winter trees and a street in the foreground.
    Concrete Utopia
    Gary—a city that social reformers had already dubbed the “City of the Century”—seemed a perfect site to try out new types of urban housing.
  • Black and white photograph of a vintage 1940s train dining car filled with seated passengers being served by waiters at tables with white tablecloths.
    The Golden Age Of The Dining Car
    Even as train travel faded in popularity, rail lines known for their dining, including the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, continued to offer full menus.
  • An engraving portrait of Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour Sr., an older man with glasses, short wavy hair, and a high collar with a bow tie.
    Butler’s First President
    In Samuel Hoshour's first teaching position at Wayne County Seminary, his pupils included governor-to-be Oliver P. Morton, and the future author of Ben Hur.

"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 and Saturday.

  • Historic black and white photograph of the Indianapolis City Market building in the late 19th century, featuring a large brick structure with towers, horse-drawn carriages on the street, and people in period clothing.
    To Market To Market
    Long before the term "locavore" was coined, buying fresh foods directly from farmers was standard operating procedure in the Hoosier State.
  • A black and white photograph shows several members of the Ku Klux Klan their signature white robes and pointed hoods as they exit a large church building. The building features a prominent bell tower and multiple windows. A 1920s motor vehicle is visible on the far left side of the frame, parked on the street.
    Worshipping In A Warzone
    For a young Catholic boy in a small Indiana town in the early 1920s, attending mass felt like "walking through a battlefield”.
  • A vintage color lithograph poster montage of a 19th-century agricultural fair, featuring a central pavilion and smaller vignettes of animals and crowds.
    From Draft Horses to Corn Dogs: The First State Fair
    On the fair's first day in 1853, 15,000 people went through the fair; on the second day, 25,000; attendees spilled over into attractions beyond the fairgrounds.
  • 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 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 close-up photograph of an antique map of Indiana, dated 1826. The map is folded and shows the state's boundaries and internal divisions
    Mapping the Frontier
    Gazetteers helped lure settlers westward into the towns of Indiana and other frontier states and gave them concrete information about their destinations.
  • An illustration titled "The Joys of the Free Highway" by G. Wright from 1907. It depicts a family next to an early automobile in a snowy landscape with a large building in the background.
    An Avant-Garde Electric Car
    Gasoline propulsion claimed the day, and by 1914 the Waverley Electric car went out of production. Turns out, the vehicle was a century ahead of its time.
  • A black and white photograph shows a group of American Red Cross volunteers and soldiers gathered around a "Clubmobile" during World War II
    Soldiers’ Solace: Clubmobile Women During World War II
    Clubmobile women did more than hand out coffee and doughnuts. Their most important job was to listen to soldiers' fears, frustrations, and hurts.
  • A weathered wooden building with a window and a door, a rustic wooden fence in the foreground, and a light dusting of snow on the ground.
    A Subtle Celebration
    Christmas in pioneer Indianapolis was a private and almost invisible holiday.

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.