Month: October 2023

This program is presented in partnership with the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science

Part I: The Annual Meeting and Dinner — November 16, 2023 at 6:00 PM in the Richardt Room at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. This part includes a catered dinner from the Bauerhaus and costs $30 per person.

Part II: The Annual Speaker — Dr. James MacLeod on “Evansville in a Time of Revolutionary Change” based on his new book Lost Evansville.
1945 to 1975 was one of the most impactful, traumatic, and transformational periods in American history, and it changed Evansville forever. This lecture examines the numerous massive changes that took place in the city in this period and how the citizens reacted.

Dr. MacLeod will be signing copies of his new book available for $26.50 each. Having the correct change will speed up the proceedings.

November 16, 2023 at 7:00 PM in the Old Gallery at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. This part is free and open to the public. For complementary reservations to James MacLeod’s talk, please visit  https://emuseum.org/rsvp and select this option from the dropdown menu.

Details about the Annual Dinner
The dinner is catered by the Bauerhaus. The dinner includes: Country Style Buffet – 2 pc fried chicken, whipped potatoes and gravy, green beans, cole slaw, roll w/ butter, Iced Tea (Sweet), Iced Tea (Unsweet), Lemonade, Double Chocolate Cake or Carrot Cake. Vegetarian or vegan choices are available upon request. The cost is $30 per person. We prefer payment via PayPal (click the donate button to the right and type in the amount equal to payment for the number of dinners for which you are paying). If you prefer to pay by check, send your check payable to VCHS C/O Dr. James MacLeod, Treasurer, 2510 Gavins Lane, Evansville, IN 47725.

About Dr. James MacLeod
Dr. James MacLeod chairs the Department of History, Politics, and Social Change at the University of Evansville. He is the author of Evansville in World War Two, which was published in 2015, and The Cartoons of Evansville’s Karl Kae Knecht, published in February 2017. In 2016 he wrote and co-produced a 2-part documentary on Evansville in World War II for WNIN PBS titled Evansville at War. In 2000, he published a book on 19th century British religion, The Second Disruption, and has also written over 30 other scholarly publications. He has delivered hundreds of public lectures, has won many awards for his teaching and scholarship, and was UE’s Outstanding Teacher in 2009. MacLeod is an active local historian, and serves on the Boards of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society, the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society, and the History Committee of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. In 2021 he received the Indiana Historical Society’s Hubert Hawkins History Award in recognition of his distinguished service and career in local history. His fourth book is a history of the city of Evansville for the History Press entitled Lost Evansville, and it is being launched officially tonight!

Presented by Terry Hughes and Jon Carl at Willard Library’s Browning Gallery on October 23, 2023 at 6:00 PM.

William E. Deeds was a photographer for the Evansville Journal in the early years of the 1900s. He used an older (to current viewers) box camera that recorded images on an 8″x10″ glass plate. Eventually, many of the glass plates ended up in the hands of Robert Glasscock who published many of them in his book Pictorial History of Evansville, Indiana. Glasscock maintained possession of the plates until his death. Upon his death, Glasscock’s family donated Glasscock’s collection to the archives of Willard Library. Terry Hughes volunteered to scan the plates into digital format. He did so under the guidance of then Willard Archivist Pat Sides.

A unique characteristic of the glass plate negatives is their incredible detail. The clock to the left is a detail from a much larger image. Both Terry Hughes and Jon Carl use digital photographs in presentations and productions they do.

The presentation on October 23rd will highlight many of the photographs in the Deeds/Glasscock collection. The presentation is free and open to the public at 6:00 PM in the Browning Gallery of Willard Library.

Jon Carl and Terry Hughes are co-creators of the Feel the History Class at FJ Reitz High School, a class Carl teaches to this date. Hughes retired from the local school corporation in 2011.