Browsing by Author "Rowe, Stephanie"

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    Overlooking the Indigenous Midwest: Prince Maximilian of Wied in New Harmony
    (2021-11) Wertz, Kyle Timothy; Guiliano, Jennifer; Wokeck, Marianne S.; Rowe, Stephanie
    In the winter of 1832-1833, German scientist and aristocrat Prince Maximilian of Wied spent five months in the Indiana town of New Harmony during a two-year expedition to the interior of North America. Maximilian’s observations of Native Americans west of the Mississippi River have influenced European and white American perceptions of the Indigenous peoples of North America for nearly two centuries, but his time in New Harmony has gone understudied. This article explores his personal journal and his published travelogue to discover what Maximilian’s time in New Harmony reveals about his work. New Harmony exposed him to a wealth of information about Native Americans produced by educated white elites like himself. However, Maximilian missed opportunities to encounter Native Americans first-hand in and around New Harmony, which he wrongly thought required crossing the Mississippi River. Because of the biases and misperceptions caused by Maximilian’s racialized worldview and stereotypical expectations of Native American life, he overlooked the Indigenous communities and individuals living in Indiana.
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    “This Great Building Belongs To Everyone”: Interrogating Claims About Inclusiveness and Exploring the Role of Nostalgia in the 1970s and 1980s Historic Preservation Movement at Union Station in Indianapolis, Indiana
    (2022-05) Butterworth, Alexis Victoria; Shrum, Rebecca K.; Scarpino, Philip V.; Rowe, Stephanie
    Union Station is a unique historic building in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The station, which first opened in 1853, has connected the history of the evolution of travel and the city of Indianapolis and, in the late twentieth century, became deeply embedded in local conversations about national issues at the intersection of race, historic preservation, and urban renewal. The station was a place of Black exclusion from public spaces throughout its existence, first as a train station, and later when it was repurposed as a Festival Marketplace. In preparation for the opening of the Festival Marketplace in the 1980s—complete with shops, restaurants, and a hotel—the developers invited people to write to them to preserve personal memories of experiences at the station from the era of train travel. Indiana residents, both white and Black, as well as Indianapolis city officials, and redevelopers of the station showed nostalgia for earlier eras when the station was active. This nostalgia, I argue, played an active and productive role in the process of saving Union Station. Importantly, those who contributed a letter to the “Remember Union Station” project were overwhelmingly white. Out of eighty-six letters, the race of seventy-three of them can be confirmed. Of those eighty-six, only two have been identified as Black. The two Black letter writers used the opportunity to contribute to the “Remember Union Station” campaign as a means to remember and claim the right to belong in Union Station for themselves, their families, and Black communities. As this project shows, the Indianapolis Union Station has always been more than just a building. It is a space that captures a part of the complex history of the city of Indianapolis and can hopefully provide more links to the past, present, and future for Hoosiers and visitors alike.
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    Threshing the Grain: Revealing the Lived Experience of a Late Nineteenth Century Hoosier Farm Woman to an Early Twenty First Century Audience
    (2020-06) Wilson, Morgan Lee; Morgan, Anita; Kaufman-McKivigan, John R.; Rowe, Stephanie
    This thesis examines the life of Mary Brown, a farmer’s wife in mid to late nineteenth century Indiana, through a detailed look at primary source materials including the journals of her husband, letters, and occasional journal entries by herself and her daughters. Mary’s story serves as a case study of the lived experiences of Indiana farm women. This research includes pertinent information regarding the farm tasks she took on both in the house and in the fields. Women did what they had to in order to assure the success of their household. This challenges and rejects the narrative of the homebound and devalued wife. In the case of the Browns, they operated as one unit, wholly committed to the success of the family and farm, not dictated by middle class or urban gender norms. Even in the face of illness, childbirth, and death, these women persevered. Women farmers are an underappreciated historical player in the development of Indiana. The comparative paucity of established works which explore the role of Indiana farmer’s wives’ duties and value shows the need for in-depth research of what life really was like for women in rural Indiana. This lack of scholarship has led to the anonymity of generations of women in Indiana. Farm women were foundational to agricultural enterprises and deserve recognition. To make certain that Hoosier farm women did not remain forgotten, an exhibit was created and story of Mary Brown was shared with the public in a way that allowed new perspectives of the past to be cultivated. This thesis will also share the process and final product of the exhibit component.