Do you recognize this street?

Postcard, circa 1913, showing the north side of Main Street, looking toward the Montgomery County Courthouse. The tallest building, in mid-photograph, is the Crawford Hotel. Tracks from the interurban or streetcar are visible in the road. Several buggies with horses are standing in the street. The postcard is addressed to Miss Marie Woerner, 2433 Central, Indianapolis, Indiana, and was mailed in August of 1913.

July 21, 1914

"July 21, 1914, Papa (Charles) with the haywagon."

Charles Busenbark stands atop a large hay load in a wagon pulled by one horse. 

This image is from a family scrapbook loaned by Walter Terry; the pages were scanned by the library (August 2011). The scrapbook contains more than 600 photographs; 141 images were added to this database (series: 20110815). Most photographs are from Montgomery County, near Whitesville. A photocopy of the scrapbook is available in CDPL Local History if you want to thumb through it!

Crawfordsville c. 1920

You may recognize East Main Street, even though it is from the Crawfordsville of almost 100 years ago! We have recently come across an interesting booklet in our archives and have placed it in our image database. You can view several scenes from this booklet named "Crawfordsviille, Ind,. and Wabash College" (.pdf).

This 14-page booklet of scenes (photo-gravures) from Crawfordsville and Wabash College show styles in clothing and automobiles that suggest c. 1920 as a date. Scenes include: east Main Street, Crawfordsville High School, Ben Hur office building, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Masonic Temple, Mills Place, Wabash College campus (Center Hall), Wabash College campus (from Center Hall looking north to South Hall), Yandes Library, Gymnasium, Peck Scientific Hall, Lew Wallace Library and monument, Henry Lane Place, and the Country Club.

1820 surveyor's ledger

An 1820s surveyor’s ledger was recently digitized and added to the library’s image database. The creator of the surveying workbook was David A. Shannon, who was at that time living in Kentucky. He came to Montgomery County in 1836 with his wife Nancy (Alexander) Shannon, and settled in Parkersburg.  He is known for surveying the town of Shannondale, which was named for him.  Shannon was also a Montgomery County member of the 1851 delegation to amend Indiana’s Constitution. You may view the entire surveyor’s workbook by searching the library’s image database at history.cdpl.lib.in.us/imagedb.html or going directly to the page here: Shannon Ledger