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History 76 results
A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey (pictured here on the east side of the downtown Square) to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character. | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: Derek Richey, House Hugger
Michael G. Glab
A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character, because “that’s why people want to live in Bloomington,” he says in this profile by Michael G. Glab. Click here to read the full story.
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Bloomington's The Language Conservancy (TLC) works to preserve Native languages that would otherwise be lost. Pictured here is one of the many books the organization produces to assist those trying to learn specific languages. | Photo by Nicole McPheeters

Local Conservancy Now Saving Indigenous Languages Worldwide
Michelle Gottschlich, Nicole McPheeters
Since 2005, Bloomington-based nonprofit The Language Conservancy has helped save indigenous languages across the nation. And now, a partnership with the United Nations expands TLC’s efforts worldwide. As writer Michelle Gottschlich’s article says, in addition to revitalizing endangered languages, TLC’s work is about getting people back “to being a human being.” Click here to read the full story.
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Ghost stories have been a part of Hoosier lore ever since there have been storytellers. Here are nine of Indiana's scariest spots. | Copyright: andreiuc88 / 123RF Stock Photo

9 Hoosier Haunts to Rattle Your Halloween
Grayson Pitts
Ghost stories have been a part of Hoosier lore ever since there have been storytellers. In his first article for LP, writer Grayson Pitts goes in search of spirits, ghosts, and mysterious legends at nine of Indiana’s scariest spots, including a mournful cemetery, a boisterous (but empty) banquet hall, and even “Indiana’s Stonehenge.” Click here to read the full story.
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Writer Laura Reagan, wearing traditional Apache dress, speaks to a group of people at Sample Gates. As Halloween approaches, consider if your costume appropriates another's culture. | Courtesy photo

Sexy or Racist? Halloween Costumes That Promote Stereotypes
Laura Martinez
When is a Halloween costume racist? Unless you’re going as a pumpkin, a zombie, or a couple’s salt and pepper shakers, you might consider the offensive message your costume is sending. Writer Laura Martinez shows why a “sexy Indian princess” costume, for example, perpetuates stereotypes and ignores the history of abuse suffered by Native Americans. Click here to read the full story.
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Writer Ross Lockridge Jr. (RLJ) killed himself on March 6, 1948, just two months after his book "Raintree County" was published. Pictured here, RLJ is signing autographs at an L. S. Ayres department store in Indianapolis on January 20, 1948. This is the last known photograph of RLJ. | Photo by Robert Lavelle, "The Indianapolis News." Photographs from raintreecounty.com are used with permission of The Estate of Ross Lockridge, Jr.

Ross Lockridge Jr., a Great American Tragedy
Doug Storm
In 1948, Ross Lockridge Jr. died by suicide in Bloomington just months after his best-selling novel, Raintree County, was published. In 2014, Doug Storm interviewed two of Lockridge’s sons for Interchange, his show on WFHB. Here, Storm writes about the sons’ conflicting opinions on the suicide and the assessment of Raintree County as the Great American Novel. Click here to read the full story.
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This photo by Jeffrey Wolin shows the last day of quarry season at the Independent Limestone quarry in 1983. This is one of many photographs Wolin took for his book, with text by Scott Russell Sanders, on the Indiana limestone industry, "Stone Country." | Photo by Jeffrey Wolin

‘Stone Country,’ the Land That Carved a People
Yaël Ksander
In her first article for Limestone Post, Yaël Ksander, a producer at WFIU, takes an in-depth look at the collaboration between photographer Jeffrey Wolin and writer Scott Russell Sanders, whose two books (published 30 years apart) are a chronicle of our quarries — the workers, rock, and cultural histories of the Indiana limestone industry. Click here to read the full story.
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Every time you tear down a barn you obliterate a memory, says barn preservationist Duncan Campbell. But he and others are committed to saving what’s left of these legacies of Indiana’s diverse barn heritage. | Photo courtesy of the Indiana Barn Foundation

Saving Hoosier Agricultural Heritage, One Barn at a Time
Dason Anderson
Every time you tear down a barn you obliterate a memory, says barn preservationist Duncan Campbell. But he and others are committed to saving what’s left of these legacies of Indiana’s diverse barn heritage. LP writer and editor Dason Anderson looks into their efforts to preserve these treasures of Indiana’s (agri)cultural past. Click here to read the full story.
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Ever since a team from a Black fraternity raced in the inaugural Little 500 in 1951, the race has had few minority participants. A concerted effort in the 2000s seemed to have broken the color barrier, with Team Major Taylor finishing as high as second place, but today the men’s and women’s races are nearly as white as ever. Pictured here is Team Major Taylor cyclist Simeon Commissiong prior to the start of the 2004 race. | Courtesy photo

65 Years of Desegregating Little 5 — at Every Turn
Sarah Gordon
Ever since a team from a Black fraternity raced in the inaugural Little 500 in 1951, the race has had few minority participants. A concerted effort in the 2000s seemed to have broken the color barrier, but today the men’s and women’s races are nearly as white as ever. Sarah Gordon takes an in-depth look at race in the most important race on campus. Click here to read the full story.
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Photo by Richard Koenig

Tracks Through Time: The Trains of 1970s Bloomington
Richard Koenig
In the 1970s, a budding photographer in Bloomington captured images of trains as they passed through the area. Today, Richard Koenig, a professor of art at Kalamazoo College, shares his photographs with Limestone Post, showing how a once essential industry was threaded into the very fabric of town life. Click here to read the full story and to see Koenig's photos.
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Writer Laura Martinez, a citizen of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, writes, "Life cannot exist without water. We can survive without oil by investing in renewable energy, but we cannot sustain life without clean water." This message has led many Native and non-Native people from all over the country to stream into Standing Rock by the thousands. | Limestone Post File Photo, Indiana University First Nations Educational and Cultural Center's (FNECC) 5th Annual Traditional Powwow at Alumni Hall in Indiana Memorial Union, 2015

Standing Rock Protestors: ‘Water Is Life’
Laura Martinez
Protestors at Standing Rock in North Dakota have a simple message: “Mni Wiconi” — Water is life. Or as Laura Martinez, a Bloomington resident and citizen of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, writes, "Life cannot exist without water. We can survive without oil by investing in renewable energy, but we cannot sustain life without clean water." Click here to read the full story.
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Hoagy Carmichael sits at the piano surrounded by friends in the Book Nook on Indiana Avenue, sometime in the 1920s. | Photo courtesy of Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music

Dada a la Bloomington — a 1920s ‘Anti-Art’ Hotbed
Michael G. Glab
When the absurdist art movement known as Dada began spreading to major cities around the world in the 1920s, it rarely found its way to sleepy Midwestern towns. But writer Michael G. Glab looks into how a soda shop in Bloomington became a hotbed of Dada, courtesy of favorite son Hoagy Carmichael and his friends. Click here to read the full story.
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Cynthia Brubaker has had more than a hand in preserving some of Bloomington’s most iconic buildings. | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: Cynthia Brubaker, Preservation Developer
Michael G. Glab
Cynthia Brubaker has had more than a hand in preserving some of Bloomington’s most iconic buildings — now homes to some of the town’s favorite galleries, studios, and businesses. This is the second profile in the series Big Mike’s B-town by Michael G. Glab for Limestone Post and based on his WFHB interview show Big Talk! Click here to read the full story.
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