Hoosier State Chronicles "...[seeks] to provide free, online access to high-quality digital images of Indiana's historic newspapers by digitizing [the Indiana State Library's] collection, and assisting other organizations in making their collections digitally available."
There are 8 historical Montgomery County newspapers available; however, the majority of issues are from pre-1910. The Indianapolis Recorder, 1899-2005—Indiana's longest running Black newspaper—is available via this collection.
The Indianapolis Recorder is Indiana's longest-running Black newspaper. Starting in 1897—and still in operation today—this digital collection provides access to issues from 1899-2005.
The Indianapolis Recorder covers state and national stories with different framing than other state newspapers (e.g. Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis News). It also includes more localized news (e.g. family information, local events from across the state), and Wabash College and Crawfordsville can be found in select issues.
Microfilm holdings are available in the Lilly Library basement.
"The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is a Chicago-based membership association of libraries, universities, museums, community/arts organizations and other archival institutions. The BMRC’s mission is to connect all who seek to document, share, understand and preserve Black experiences.
It is the vision of the BMRC to be essential to promoting discovery, preservation, and use of Black historical collections. Through consortial programs, the BMRC aids in expanding broad access to its members’ holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago."
"Located on the second floor [of the Crawfordsville District Public Library], our Local History and genealogy section is a part of the Reference Department and features a robust online database in addition to the collection located in the building."
Check out the CDPL Local History database for research on individuals, families, businesses, and organizations related to Montgomery County. In addition to general research files, the database provides access to cemetery information, genealogy research materials, government records (e.g. birth, death, marriage, naturalization, etc.), and other ephemeral materials (e.g. yearbooks, newspapers, etc.)
This database does not work like a typical digital collection with access to digital copies of the materials; the database provides index information for articles and records, and the researcher than has to physically go to CDPL to request access (or find another database or digital collection that provides access).
The following document is a listing of materials that were pulled for student research into their topics as part of the Malcolm and Mandela course.
In addition to these materials, there are also several Wabash College publications that may be of interest. Physical copies are available in the Ramsay Archival Center; select issues of some publications are available to check out from the Lilly Library general collection.
The holdings of the Robert T. Ramsay, Jr. Archival Center are primarily searchable via the Archives' internally-accessible database. As work continues to allow the public access to search this resource, it currently remains only accessible to Archives staff.
As a starting place for research, patrons may find it helpful to review the following folder-level inventories of a portion of the Archives holdings. These inventories represent only a fraction of the department's holdings (less than 20%) but provide insight into some of the earliest college records and materials (e.g. correspondence, manuscripts, ephemera, etc.) held by the department.
Select materials are available via the Archives' digital collections. See the Digital Collections page for more information and access along with information on the Archives' blogs.
For general questions about the department's holdings or specific inquiries about materials listed in the following inventories, please contact the Archives at archives@wabash.edu or reach out to specific department staff.
For reference questions, inquiries about department holdings, or scheduling a research visit, please email: archives@wabash.edu
Or check out the Ramsay Archival Center website: