Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission

The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission Collection contains information and images of Indianapolis properties located within designated historic districts.

Historical Aerial Photography Collection

Collection of historical aerial photographs from around Indiana. Browsable by county.

Tiananmen Square, 1989

On April 15, 1989, Hu Yaobang, the ousted General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, died in Beijing. Thousands of ordinary people went to Tiananmen Square to mourn for his death. The college students in universities in Beijing soon turned mourning into a grassroots movement that called for political reform. This event spread to many cities in China and abroad as well and lasted for more than a month. The event ended abruptly with government’s killing of hundreds of ordinary citizens on June 4. This collection photographically documents the events of this tumultuous time.

Western Medicine in China, 1850-1950

A collection of photographs from Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University related to western medicine in China from 1800-1950 including the establishment and activities of hospitals, medical schools and other institutions in medical care, education and public health campaigns.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway boasts an enormous photographic collection with over 4 million negatives in its collection.  Together, IU Indianapolis University Library and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will digitize and create metadata for 6,000 negatives for the collection.  By providing online access to this collection, users will have the opportunity to view and search the collection that would otherwise have to be viewed by coming to the Speedway.

Hamilton County History

Originally entitled Hamilton County in 1900: Through a Young Person's Lens, this collection includes the photographs of Earl Brooks (1883-1968), who acquired a camera as a young man and took pictures between approximately 1897 and 1904 of friends, teachers, the countryside and events in central Indiana, California, Kentucky and Ohio.  Photographs of the Hamilton County Township Schools taken between 1892 and 1909 are also included. At the turn of the century, County School Superintendent Ellis A. Hutchens announced his wish to have a photograph taken of every Hamilton County school and here are 68 of those photographs. Also included is the Inter-State Directory Company's directory of Noblesville and Hamilton County Gazetteer for the years 1907-1908, a countywide residential and business directory. These projects were made possible by a joint project between the Hamilton County Historical Society and the Hamilton East Public Library.

Keystone View Company Lantern Slides

The Keystone View Company was the largest stereographic company in the world, specializing in national and international geographic and social science images.  The 488 slides in this digital collection include images from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. They depict scenes from agricultural, industrial, commercial, urban, rural, transportation, nature, historical and daily life situation. Images date from the 1890s through the early twentieth century.

Indianapolis History

This collection includes a variety of Indianapolis related primary (with limited secondary) resources (photographs and text) dating from late 19th to mid 20th centuries.Example resources include:Indianapolis Power & Light Co. Distribution System Photograph collection, monographs on the history of Indiana such as, The Hoosiers published in 1916, several issue of the Free Soil Banner, and various published and unpublished city of Indianapolis scrapbooks.

Sports Car Club of America

Dating back to its inception in 1944, Sports Car Club of America has served as the United States’ most diverse motorsports organization. With competition in its DNA, SCCA is pleased to partner with the IU Indianapolis University Library to capture some of its proud photographic history for future members, motorsports enthusiasts and historians.

Indiana Medical History Museum - Wishard Scrapbook

University Library collaborated with the Indiana Medical History Museum to make this scrapbook, which Dr. William Niles Wishard was heavily involved in the creation of, available in digital format. This treasure, like many of the artifacts on display at the Indiana Medical History Museum, is a window into the history of medicine in Indiana and an introduction to some of the past prominent figures in the Indianapolis Medical Society.

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