Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue Libraries has completed the digitization of Indiana Farmer for the years 1851-1917, which chronicles the state of Hoosier agriculture in the pre- and post-Civil War years.

The Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Indiana State Library and the Institute of Museum and Library Services provided funding for the digitization.

The digitized Indiana Farmer increases access to first-hand accounts of rural life in Indiana during the Civil War era. Students, researchers and enthusiasts now have relatively easy access to articles, editorials and advertisements about the routine life of farmers and their families during a time when the country was experiencing a threat to its existence.

Research conducted during this time answered such questions as: Do rabbits bite? Daniel Fiskel of Logansport concluded that they do after his nose was bitten while holding the research subject.

Three lesson plans are available to help elementary teachers integrate the digitized content into the state history curriculum. Each digitalized issue is full-text searchable so that users can more easily locate the newspaper content. The collection will become part of the Indiana Memory project.

The website also provides users descriptive information about the publication and project background.

The digitized collection can be found at http://e-archives.lib.purdue.edu/collections/indianafarmer/

Contact: Vicki Killion, associate professor of library science, 765-494-1417, vkillion@purdue.edu