Recollections
- Purchases may be made via a visit to our office, by telephone (317-232-2535), fax (317-232-3728), or e-mail (ihb @ history.in.gov). More info on purchasing here.
Remembering Zionsville
Joan Praed Lyons
Although William Zion never lived in Zionsville, it was his business acuity that led to the railway station being built on Elijah and Polly Cross's plot of land the beginnings of a burgeoning town. This strategic location brought development and prosperity to Zionsville as people traveling through Indiana stopped to discover the distinctive flair of this small but industrious community. Local historian Joan Praed Lyons depicts the spirit of a town in which a rousing game of donkey softball raised money for a new park and neighbors formed bucket brigades when fires broke out. In this delightful collection of vignettes, Lyons brings new life to Zionsville's history through her engaging and meticulously researched prose.
paper 127 pp. ISBN 978-1-59629-6-1/$21.99
Order No. 2784
Affectionately Yours: The Civil War Home-Front Letters of the Ovid Butler Family
Barbara Butler Davis 
Includes transcriptions of 65 holograph letters written from 1863 to 1865 by members of the Butler family of Indianapolis, strong supporters of abolition, to their son Scot. The letters, now in the collection of the Irvington Historical Society, relate a fascinating social history of the Indianapolis community during the Civil War.
cloth 211 pp. ISBN 0-87195-175-4/$27.95
Order No. 2493
Retro Indiana: A Postcard Book from the Indiana Historical Society
Testifying in a libel case in 1919, industrialist Henry Ford proudly proclaimed he did not know much about history, calling it “more or less bunk.” People, Ford said, preferred to live in the present. What Ford neglected to realize was the passion people hold for those places in their youth that represent fond memories. These retro postcards are from the Indiana Historical Society collection and repositories from around the state. There are 30 postcards, b/w color images.
paper 2006/ISBN 0-87195-192-4/$9.95
Order No. 2576
A Soldier in World War I: The Diary of Elmer W. Sherwood
Robert H. Ferrell, editor
This book captures the words of a Hoosier soldier as he wrote them on the front lines. Sherwood tells of the hard existence of life in the trenches, including the endless mud that sometimes trapped unwary soldiers for hours. He was in the horrendous Meuse-Argonne offensive that claimed 26,000 Ameriocan lives.
cloth 211 pp. 2004/ISBN 0-87195-173-8/$24.95
Order No. 2467
Herman Wells Stories
John Gallman and Rosann Greene
Upon the occasion of his 90th birthday, friends gather to celebrate and relate stories and anecdotes of this public figure.
paper 73 pp. 1992/ISBN 0-253-20753-3/$8.95
Order No. 2062
Old Indianapolis: A Postcard Book
Indiana Historical Society
Journey through Indianapolis’s past and see how the city has grown. The changing landscape of Indianapolis, including its buildings and its people, are included in this book of postcards from the Indiana Historical Society’s W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection. There are 30 postcards in this book.
paper 2006/ISBN 0-87195-190-8/$9.95
Order No. 2575
How Dear to My Heart
Emily Kimbrough
A humorous tribute by the author to her happy childhood spent in Muncie, Indiana.
paper 267 pp. 1991/ISBN 0-253-20685-5/$9.95
Order No. 2069
The Ripest Moments: A Southern Indiana Childhood
Norbert Krapf
The Ripest Moments: A Southern Indiana Childhood is a prose memoir by noted Indiana poet and essayist Norbert Krapf of his childhood and growing up in Jasper. In the book Krapf, who was born in 1943 and whose poetry has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, recalls his rural, small-town upbringing in the German-Catholic community and unearths the distinctive place and culture in which he lived. As Krapf observes, “Behind this book and my collections of poetry is a conviction that an awareness of individual and collective origins can enlighten, nourish, guide, and sustain us and those who come after us.”
cloth 276 pp. 2008 / ISBN 978-0-87195-262-2 / $15.95
Order No. 2703
Indianapolis in Vintage Postcards
W. C. Madden
Take an historic journey through Indianapolis from 1890 to 1950 by means of postcards of the time.
Postcard History Series from Arcadia Press.
paper 128 pp. 2003/ISBN 0-7385-2321-6/$19.99
Order No. 2386
Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II
James H. Madison
Elizabeth Richardson was a Red Cross volunteer who worked in a Clubmobile unit during World War II until her death in a plane crash in July 1945. Her job was to provide free doughnuts and coffee, cigarettes and gum to American soldiers on duty in England, and later in France. More importantly, she and her colleagues provided a slice of home. They were American girls with whom soldiers could talk, flirt, dance, and perhaps find companionship. In his commentary, James H. Madison provides fascinating insight into Elizabeth Richardson's life, the activities of the Red Cross Clubmobiles, and the war. This book is an exceptional window into a past that is all too quickly fading from memory.
cloth 2007/ISBN 978-0-253-35047-3/$24.95
Order No. 2671
Lost Indianapolis
John P. McDonald
Images and stories of select people, places, and companies that once were part of the heart of Indianapolis, but are now only shadows of the past.
Images of America series from Arcadia Press.
paper 128 pp. 2002/ISBN 0-7385-2008-X/$19.99
Order No. 2387
"Honoring Those Who Paid the Price", Forgotten Voices from the Korean War
Randy K. Mills
Examines those who died, those who served, and the loved ones back home who strugled to understand the horrors of war.
cloth 296 pp. 2002/ISBN 0-87195-162-2/$29.95
Order No. 2371
The Scenic Route: Stories from the Heartland
Edited by Ellen Munds and Beth Millett
With the publication of The Scenic Route: Stories from the Heartland, the Indiana Historical Society Press celebrates the 20th anniversary of Storytelling Arts of Indiana, which promotes the art and use of storytelling in daily life though its annual festival, concerts, workshops, programs and other events. Storytelling is about gathering with friends, family and even those we have just met to share with one another stories of our childhood, our culture and our heritage. In this age of over-scheduled lives, Internet and television addictions, and outside pressures, stories remind us of our roots and traditions. Storytelling Arts of Indiana has spent 20 years creating places for individuals to come together and experience storytelling in the hope of encouraging that sharing and listening relationship in our everyday lives. The Scenic Route offers us a dozen stories to enjoy and help us to remember.
paper 124 pp. 2007, reprinted 2008 / ISBN 9780871952592 / $8.95
Order No. 2700
Indiana Winter
Susan Neville
Collection of essays of the familiar Indiana of suburbs and towns--also a private Indiana, shaped by memories and lit by imagination.
cloth 249 pp. 1994/ISBN 0-253-34004-7/$32.95
Order No. 2401
paper 249 pp. 1994/ISBN 0-253-20879-3/$12.95
Order No. 2080
Life in Letters
Gabrielle Robinson and Erwin Scherer
paper 182 pp. ISBN 1-880788-16-0/$10.00
Order No. 2581
Air Raid Nights and Radio Days
Don Schroeder explores the sharp contrast between the dark nights and bright childhood memories that opened the doors for a boy growing up as part of the Silent Generation. After the Depression and World War Two, conditions improved for many Americans, including Don and his family. With wit and humor, Don invites the world to see Indianapolis as this 'nasty little gutter tramp' saw it. Sample city chicken or scrambled brains with eggs, mow down imaginary Nazis, and turn off 'Fibber McGee and Molly,' the favorite nighttime radio show, in time to confuse enemy bombers and save Indianapolis from destruction. Don relishes those nearly forgotten years and the memories of God reaching for a boy slip-sliding along during this difficult period of Air Raid Nights and Radio Days.
Paper 264 pp. 2009 / ISBN 978-1-60696-034-9 / $14.99
Order No. 2757
Bayou Bill's Best Stories
Bill Scifres
Story telling of a lifetime of outdoor misadventures, with outlandish characters and touching on the timelessness of humorous tales and anecdotes.
paper 201 pp. 1990/ISBN 0-253-35059-X/$9.95
Order No. 2023
Only 317 Survived! Navy's Worst Tragedy at Sea . . . 880 Men Died
USS Indianapolis Survivors
Read the true personal stories of the survivors of the USS Indianapolis which was hit by torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945 in the Pacific. Of the 1,197 men in the crew, 880 died and 317 were rescued. A memorial to the USS Indianapolis is located in downtown Indianapolis on the canal.
cloth 531 pp. 2002/ISBN 0-9725960-0-3/$30.00
Order No. 2411
Being Lucky
Herman B. Wells
Herman Wells recalls his formative boyhood years in a small Indiana town, gives his views on how to run a university, and describes some of his national and international service.
cloth 493 pp. 1980/ISBN 0-253-11556-6/$29.95
Order No. 2026
Ghosts of Jungle Park
Tom W. Williams
"The Ghosts of Jungle Park" by Tom W. Williams. History, Myth and Legend - The story of a place like no other. This is the history of Jungle Park, a resort and speedway built in the 1920's in west central Indiana at the introduction of the "speed age".
cloth 330 pp. 2008/ ISBN 1-891-390-49-X / $40.00
Order No. 2641
