Additional Sources
If you are interested in digging deeper into some of the themes, evidence, and historical narratives presented in this exhibition in the context of local history, check out the presentations below created by other students in past sections of HIST 200: Introduction to History and Historical Methods, HIST 414: Seminar in Middletown Studies, or the Teacher-Scholar Program at Ball State University.
The Evolution of Getting a Living in Middletown is a Scalar website created by students who completed History 414: Seminar in Middletown Studies (taught by Dr. James J. Connolly) in Fall 2022. Students explored and documented the work experience from the late nineteenth century to the present using archival materials focused on Muncie, IN. This site traces changes in work during and after the period of rapid industrialization and the impact of deindustrialization on workers and companies, as well as the intersectional experiences of women, Blacks, and other minority groups.
Interested in learning more about immigrants and migrants coming to Muncie during this time period? For more information check out this podcast by Ben Hettler and John Moynihan:
Did you know that Indiana prohibited the sale and possession of alcohol a full year before the American federal government passed the Eighteenth Amendment introducing the period called Prohibition (January 17, 1920-December 5, 1933)? Learn more about the debates in Muncie about alcohol and the road to Prohibition in these two podcasts:
To Drink or Not To Drink: The Wet/Dry Debate in early 1900s Muncie, IN
Saloons: What and Where? Drinking Alcohol in the early 1900s in Muncie, IN
Did you like learning about alcohol and prohibition? Check out this MapFling presentation counting Muncie's saloons:
Still looking for more? You might enjoy the set of podcasts (below) by Christian Patino and John Williams about Muncie's Progressive Era bar culture.
To learn about Cocaine Alley, the racialization and gendering of drug use, and how Muncie struggled with controlling access to narcotics from 1870-1920, in this StoryMaps project created by Griffin Hamilton and Samantha Kidder:
For more information about prostitution, social reform, and women's clubs in Muncie, check out this StoryMaps presentation by Claire Enk and Sophia Hoffert:
Interested in hearing more from the historians who investigated Muncie in the Progressive Era? Watch this recording of "Revisiting Middletown: Highlighting Indiana Histories," a session from the 2022 Ball State Student History Conference (90 mins.) to hear about the joys and challenges of tracking social and charitable work, saloons, and the sex trade.
Work by Cory Balkenbusch, Emily McGuire, Jenna Pyle, and Lydia Waters is presented here. The session was moderated by Dr. James J. Connolly.