INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) is asking the community for help identifying parks that were photographed from the early 1900s up through the 1990s with little or no information attached to them. These photographs are a part of IndyPL’s Digital Indy collection, an online archive of documents, images, videos, and recordings that highlight local history.
The Indy Parks and Recreation Digital Indy collection features over 17,000 images and documents that depict the history of the city’s parks. The collection spans decades before the parks system of Indianapolis was officially formed. More than 1,500 photographs in this collection have little or no identifying information attached to them.
“For this project, we are looking for volunteers to help connect our unidentified or under-identified images to specific parks,” said Katie Farmer, digital projects coordinator with IndyPL. “These unidentified photos include park features and landscapes, and events such as guests cheering at football games and families decorating bikes with children. They provide a unique glimpse into the history of Indianapolis and the people who called our city home, and we would love to give proper attribution to the people and places in these photos. It’s a scavenger hunt through Indianapolis history.”
The collection has been preserved in large part due to the diligence of long-time Indy Parks and Recreation employee Rupert Daily, who recorded, saved, and organized thousands of photo negatives and slides when he worked for Indy Parks between 1945 and 1993. It features some of the city’s most notable and historic public assets including Garfield Park, Riverside Park, Holliday Park, Highland Park, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Park, and Eagle Creek Park.
To volunteer for this crowdsourcing project, visit www.digitalindy.org/digital/custom/ipr.