INDIANAPOLIS — Researchers, educators and alumni can now access nearly 2,500 archived items that depict the rich and illustrious history of Indianapolis Public Schools as part of The Indianapolis Public Library’s Digital Indy collection found at www.digitalindy.org.
Downloadable items, some of which date from 1853, represent the 120 elementary and high schools that have comprised IPS and underscore the role they have played in shaping the community. These include newsletters, yearbooks, IPS Board meeting minutes, school histories, registers of children, scrapbooks, news clippings, teacher contracts and staff biographies. Photos of students, school staff and schools also are included.
Made possible by a $1.8 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through gifts to The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation, the IPS collection is the culmination of a nearly three-year effort to identify, acquire and digitize more than 430,000 pages of materials that had been warehoused in various locations.
Of potential interest to site visitors is a collection of the Daily Echo, the daily school newspaper published by students at Shortridge High School, whose graduates include former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar and author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., both of whom wrote for and served as editors of the paper. From microfilm loaned by the Indiana Historical Society from which digital images were produced, 10,844 issues of the Daily Echo dating to 1898 are available for reading.
The IPS digital collection homepage features a video interview with Senator Lugar, through which he reflects on his days as an IPS student and the impact of the school system on his future career.
The project’s goal is to provide free public access to historical items that are fragile or otherwise inaccessible. The expertise of staff at Crossroads Document Services, a division of Easterseals Crossroads, allowed for the conversion of all types of media into the digital format.
