AASLH Member Since 1941

The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) has launched its new Destination Indiana website, which will bring hundreds of the state’s stories to life in images and text for people from their home, office, classroom, or wherever their smartphones and tablets take them. The website, www.Destination-Indiana.com, is the latest in IHS’s series of Indiana Bicentennial projects. Guests to the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center and IHS’s Indiana Experience have been spellbound by Destination Indiana, an interactive opportunity for visitors to time-travel using innovative digital technology, touch screens and immersive displays of historic images and documents. Guests can explore and understand the places, ideas, people and game-changing contributions of Indiana.

Now, with the Destination Indiana website, users can also explore Indiana’s rich cultural heritage at home. Almost 300 “journeys” exploring more than 200 years of the state’s history have been drawn from IHS’s extensive collections of more than 1.7 million photographs and tens of thousands of documents and other archival items.

The website includes one journey for each of Indiana’s 92 counties, as well as themed journeys on subject matters such as ethnic heritage, Indiana’s military history, the Ohio River, mapping the state, social justice and reform, government, rail transportation, agriculture, art/artists, business/industry, sports, biographies and more. Each image’s caption is accompanied by optional audio of the text.

In addition to browsing, journeys of interest can be located by utilizing a keyword search, clicking on a map of the state or perusing a list of journey themes. Online guests are also free to share images on Facebook and Twitter, or via email. By creating a free account on the site, they can also save their favorite journeys and download higher-resolution images for personal or educational (non- commercial) use. Like the Indiana Experience version of Destination Indiana, new journeys will be added to the website twice each year.

The Destination Indiana website is a presentation of the Indiana Historical Society and is made possible by a generous gift from Care Institute Group, Inc. For more information on IHS programs, call (317) 232-1882 or visit our website.

About the Indiana Historical Society’s Bicentennial Efforts

IHS has been working diligently to create touch points for the community, tools for schools and educators, and assistance for local historical groups as the state’s bicentennial year of 2016 approaches. Just last month, IHS announced its Indiana Heritage Support Program, which will offer $2.5 million in grants to smaller Indiana historical organizations over the next five years as well as fundraising training and assistance. Other projects include the Indiana Bicentennial Train, Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana by James H. Madison (co-published with Indiana University Press), the educational supplemental text Hoosiers and the American Story by James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss, and a three-year series of regional bicentennial teacher training workshops. Additional programs and several books will be offered in 2015 and 2016.

About the Indiana Historical Society

Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been Indiana’s Storyteller, connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting and sharing the state’s history. A private, nonprofit membership organization, IHS maintains the nation’s premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest and presents a unique set of visitor exhibitions called the Indiana Experience. IHS also provides support and assistance to local museums and historical groups, publishes books and periodicals; sponsors teacher workshops; produces and hosts art exhibitions, museum theater and outside performance groups; and provides youth, adult and family programming. The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, home of IHS and its Indiana Experience, is located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis. Operating hours for the History Center, including the William Henry Smith Memorial Library and the Indiana Experience, are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.