In May 1908 the Indiana University School of Medicine graduated its first class, and the graduates included Clarence Augustus Lucas. Lucas had come to Indianapolis in 1904 to study at the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons before he completed three years at the Medical College of Indiana, a Purdue University-affiliated medical school that was … Continue reading The Heritage of Racism and Medicine in Indianapolis| Invisible Indianapolis
In November 1903 the city of Indianapolis resolved to build a new “pest house” to hold epidemic disease patients in an isolated location. This was simply the latest in a string of quarantine facilities the city had built to hold epidemic disease victims since the Civil War. Like all cities Indianapolis had a long 19th-century … Continue reading Contagion and Urbanization: Epidemic Disease and City Planning in Indianapolis’ Near-Westside| Invisible Indianapolis
In October 1922 Reverend Charles H. Gunsolus delivered the sermon “The Truth About the Ku Klux Klan” at Indianapolis’ Union Congregationalist Church. In a spirited defense of the hooded order against the Indianapolis Mayor, Police, and press, Gunsolus argued that “`The Ku Klux Klan is putting the church back on its feet. Christ was the … Continue reading “The First Klansman”: Xenophobia, Faith, and Redemption in the Indiana Klan| Invisible Indianapolis
In September 1889 The Indianapolis News provided a laudatory albeit graphic description of the Indianapolis Abattoir’s slaughterhouse operations in West Indianapolis. Incorporated in September 1882, the Morris Street plant focused purely on slaughtering animals for processing by wholesale butchers, and in 1889 they expanded their factory to meat packing as well in their location “on … Continue reading “Not an agreeable neighbor”: Industry and Development in West Indianapolis| Invisible Indianapolis
This post was co-authored with Jonathan Howe, West Indianapolis Neighborhood Congress and owner CityDump Records In December 1902 The Indianapolis Recorder hailed the arrival in the Circle City of African-American poet Aaron Belford Thompson, noting that “Although Mr. Thompson is a young man still in his twenties, he is the author of two books of … Continue reading Poetry and African-American Life in West Indianapolis| Invisible Indianapolis
This piece was written with Alyssa Meyer and Kyle Turner For 46 years chiropractor George Chester Watkins and his wife Marjorie treated patients at their home at 402 North California Street. The Watkins moved into the home in 1921, but like thousands of their neighbors they were forced to move when Indiana University purchased the … Continue reading Displacement and Discontent: Uprooting a Neighborhood| Invisible Indianapolis
This post also appeared on my blog Archaeology and Material Culture On July 15, 1920 massive fences were erected on each side of Lucien Meriwethers’ home at 2257 North Capitol Avenue: to the south, Gabriel and Goldie Slutzky erected a 10’ high fence, and to the north Mary Grooms built a six-foot fence. Meriwether was … Continue reading Racist Spite and Residential Segregation: Housing and the Color Line in Inter-War Indianapolis| Invisible Indianapolis
This also appears on my blog Archaeology and Material Culture Around World War II artist Ralph Louis Temple painted a series of oil studies of his Indianapolis neighborhood. Temple’s family had lived on Minerva Street since 1866, when Ralph’s great grandfather Carter Temple Sr. came to the Circle City. Ralph Temple’s painting featured the double … Continue reading Visual Memory and Urban Displacement| Invisible Indianapolis
On August 13, 1867 Green Montgomery swore an oath of allegiance to the United States, which made him eligible to vote in Floyd County, Georgia. Montgomery had been enslaved in Floyd County, probably since his birth around 1836, and his ascent from property to voting citizen was repeated scores of times throughout the South. Numerous … Continue reading The Landscapes of Wes Montgomery| Invisible Indianapolis
In 1939 the Indianapolis Recorder reported on the death of John Henry Gibson, who had been enslaved in North Carolina over 70 years before. In the days before his death Gibson had refused to eat, t…| Invisible Indianapolis
