These manuscripts were collected, copied and distributed to select libraries in the state by the Indiana State Library to commemorate Indiana's sesquicentennial (1966). Ball State University, Indiana State University, the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, Indiana University at Bloomington (Lilly Library), the Fort Wayne - Allen County Public Library, the Indianapolis Public Library, the Indiana Historical Society Library, and the Indiana State Library participated in the project.
Indiana Sesquicentennial Manuscript Collection (ISM), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Set of documents (photocopies and microfilm copies of the originals) relating to Indiana history: consisting of letters, diaries, journals, business records, church records, minutes, account books, sermons, speeches, memoirs; including journals of Irish immigrant Rev. John Hamilton (1850), and Methodist circuit rider William S. Hooper (1858-1868); an autobiography of Rev. Thomas Butler; and diaries and letters from the Civil War period.
Also privately printed commencement programs, business and industrial catalogs, broadsides, maps and pamphlets.
Thomas Krasean published a Guide to the Indiana Sesquicentennial Manuscript Project in the Indiana Magazine of History, Volume LXIV, June and September 1968.
Index :
Hamilton, John Hooper, William S. Butler, Thomas Indiana--History United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Photocopies of manuscripts. The microfilm contains images of other manuscripts, not copies of these in a different medium.
Microfilm of manuscripts. A few of the reels were separated for a time from the collection, and an archivist described them as if they were independent collections. The description below is a side effect of that mistake; there are many other manuscripts in the collection that are not described here.
Early Documents of Vincennes 1768-1817
Early documents from the Post and then town of Vincennes, under French, then British, and finally American control. Documents include property transfers, wills and inventories, contracts, in French with typescript or handwritten translations into English following; indenture of William Henry and Anna Harrison, signed by Henry Vanderburgh.
Correspondence of the Pittinger family, then of Delaware County, Indiana, consisting primarily of letters to Sarah Ellen Pittinger from T.H. Pittinger and M.J. Pittinger while Union soldiers (in the 57th Indiana Infantry?) at various Civil War-era camps in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Iowa, among them Camp Wayne at Richmond, Indiana, Camp Wallace, Kentucky, Camp Franklin, Iowa, and Camp Carrington, at Indianapolis. Also includes some letters sent to soldiers from Pittinger family members. Subjects include daily life, health, weather, comrades, and family matters.
Rodman Family Papers 1861-1864?
Civil War era letters of the Rodman Family of Salem, Washington County, Indiana, primarily from John A. Rodman, Bill M. Rodman (23rd Indiana Infantry?), J.P. Kyte, W.A. Kyte, and John F. Rodman from camps in Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, and Georgia. Subjects include camp life, officers, comrades, reenlistment decisions and advice, Lincoln, and political opinions on the candidacy of General McClellan in the Presidential Election of 1864.
A. Origen Mitchell, "Reminiscences of Hospital Life" 1862-1863
Diary of A.O. Mitchell of Company A, 13th Indiana Volunteer Infantry written from Chesapeake General Hospital (Union) near Fort Monroe, Virginia and on the march in the Virginia countryside in the summer of 1863, and a letter written by Mitchell from a hospital near Suffolk, Virginia, in November of 1862. Subjects include camp followers, army food, medications taken for his disorder (flux), desire for active duty. Included in the book is a sort of family history in verse copied by Mitchell's wife in 1896 and attributed to him.
Smith Family Letters 1857-1863
Civil war era correspondence from members of the Smith family, from Water Cure (Ind?). Letters between Smith men on the battle front and Smith woman at home cover issues such as troop movement and general camp life. Legibility tends to be poor but mention of the 9th battery 2nd Ind artillery grand junction, 46th Indiana regiment, and Camp Jewett, are made.