Event Date:  September 1 – October 13                

North Manchester Center for History Hosts Indiana Disasters Traveling Exhibit                                                                                   

The North Manchester Center for History (NMCH) will host Indiana Disasters, one of the Indiana Historical Society’s (IHS’s) newest traveling exhibitions, September 1-October 13.  The exhibit can be viewed during regular museum hours, and will be available free to the public during North Manchester’s Harvest Festival, September 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Natural and human activities, and often a combination of the two, produce catastrophic events affecting the Indiana landscape and Hoosier individuals in the past and today.  Historically, stories of these events are passed down through generations.  Sometimes we learn from disastrous events, but other times they cannot be prevented. 

In Indiana, extreme weather such as floods, tornadoes, blizzards, and drought persist year to year.  The way humans interact with their environment also leave people vulnerable to disasters, causing accidents like fires, crashes, spills, and explosions.  Disasters of all kinds--biological, violent, or bizarre events such as epidemics, bombs, and squirrel migrations--are forever remembered in local communities.

In this traveling exhibit, photographs from IHS collections and other state institutions capture unforgettable Indiana catastrophes while newspaper headlines, illustrations and survivor accounts show how Hoosier’s persevere in the face of disaster.

Indiana Disasters is made possible by Kroger.  For more information about this exhibit, call The Center for History, (260) 982-0672 or visit nmhistory@cinergymetro.net.  To learn more about the IHS and its programs, call (317) 232-1882 or visit www.indianahistory.org.

The North Manchester Historical Society operates the Center for History and the Thomas Marshall House museums.  The Center is located at 122 E. Main Street.  It features 9,000 square feet of exhibit space displaying thousands of artifacts from its 27,000-item collection, new renovated and expanded exhibits, a 1,200-item antique farm equipment collection, prehistoric Native American tools and weapons, and rare historic opera curtains. 

Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has connected people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting and sharing the state’s history.  IHS maintains the nation’s premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest and presents a unique set of visitor exhibitions called the Indiana Experience.