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Monday, November 15, 2010
Ind. Gov't. - "Millions of historic state government documents now accessible online"
CNHI reporter Maureen Hayden has this interesting story, available here via the Terre Haute Tribune Star. It begins:
TERRE HAUTE — Among the millions of government documents deposited in the Indiana State Archives are Civil War-era telegrams from President Abraham Lincoln to his stalwart ally, Indiana Gov. Oliver Morton.Until recently, the telegrams were sitting in cardboard boxes in a state government warehouse designated a decade ago as the “temporary home” for nearly two centuries worth of state records.
Now they’re being scanned into the state's digital archives to eventually join a growing collection of historic government records that can be accessed online.
Many reveal information about ordinary Hoosiers.
With just a few clicks of a mouse, a visitor to the Indiana State Digital Archives website has access to 2.7 million records. They include naturalization records of immigrants who settled in Indiana; the “Negro” registries of Hoosiers forced by a 19th-century state law to report their race; indexes of inmates committed to prison and mental institutions; and “muster roll” information on more than 200,000 Indiana soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
“Our collections are absolutely fascinating,” said Jim Corridan, the Indiana state archivist and director of the Indiana Commission on Public Records.
While federal funds have helped support the digital archives project, a wealth of information has been preserved and protected on a shoestring budget. Corridan gives much credit to a dedicated band of volunteers known as the Friends of the Indiana State Archives. “They make Indiana history come alive,” he said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 15, 2010 09:59 AM
Posted to Indiana Government