Indiana University Archives

05/29/2026

Last fall, the Director of the Archives picked up a phone call from the East Coast. The woman on the other end explained she was the widow of Steve Tesich, did Dina know who that was and would the Archives want his papers?

Um. Why yes, yes to all of that.

We are pleased to share that the papers of the prolific author and IU alumnus Steve Tesich - you may know him as Academy Award screenwriter for a little work called Breaking Away - have now been processed! Archives student Evan Kern has written a terrific blog post that highlights Tesich and his work. Link in comments!

A major new collection that brings together the life and work of IU alumnus Steve Tesich was added to Archives Online last week. Tesich was an Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright, and novelist whose career stretched from the late 1960s through the mid 1990s. He was born Stojan Tešić in 1942 in ...

05/26/2026

We're not sure how we missed this, but the March 2026 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History featured our Theophilus Wylie diaries! In "Omne Mali Avertam O Deus: The Civil War Diary of Theophilus A. Wylie, 1861-1862," edited by Dawn E. Bakken, Justin Hawkins, and David A. Nichols, the editors explore TAW's entries during the first two years of the war, giving insight into how it impacted Bloomington and his family: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/987435

Stay tuned for next month's issue that will continue its coverage!

05/22/2026

The gasp we gusped when we opened up the latest transfer from our talented IU Libraries Preservation colleagues. Sometimes materials come to us in....rough....shape and that's when they step in. Check out the transformation of this Soldiers Memorial poster from the Cecilia Hennel Hendricks family papers!

The artist behind this amazing work is IU Libraries Library and Archives Conservator Paulina Miąsik!

05/01/2026

Digitization of archival materials is so much more than slapping things on a scanning bed. In this new blog post, Public Services Assistant Holly Fitzpatrick shares an overview of the work and partnerships that goes behind this labor-intensive endeavor AND highlights the many materials now digitized and online for your research and enjoyment!

Now that IU Day and the 75th running of the IU Student Foundation’s Little 500 is behind us, we’re taking a moment to highlight the behind-the-scenes of our digitization practices. In the last year, our digitization team has scanned nearly 700 items from 10 IU Archives collections, which totals ...

04/23/2026

04/22/2026

Happy IU Day! IU Day is a day to celebrate the good of Indiana University and support those causes that "speak" to you. We hope that the work of the University Archives speaks to you and you will consider getting us to the goal line - we are less than $1,000 away from our crowdfunding goal of $10,000! https://give.myiu.org/crowdfunding/I320016600-CF.html

Donations go to our nascent Mary Brown Craig University Archives Special Projects Fund and our first special project is to digitize the Indiana Daily Student in its entirety. It's a pricey endeavor and thus far, has been 100% donor funded! Please help us make this invaluable campus resource more readily available to IU students, staff, and researchers around the globe!

Want to check out our progress? go.iu.edu/digiIDS

04/21/2026

Hot off the presses! Our colleagues in the Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive have *just* finished up digitization of a few more Little 500 race films for us - including the FIRST race in 1951! Check it out! https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/media_objects/k930cz61x

04/20/2026

The Archives and IU Libraries have worked hard to ensure alums near and far can access a ton of digitized content relating to the Little 500!

2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the IU Student Foundation's Little 500, bringing even more excitement and anticipation to the world's greatest college weekend. 🤝🚲

From exhilarating races to deep roots of student-led philanthropy, Little 500 has led a legacy of Hoosiers past, present and future. Join Indiana University Archives and get a glimpse into this historic weekend over the decades.

Check out the Little 500 archives here: https://hey.iu.edu/unQxc

04/16/2026

HUGE congratulations to two Archives graduate student employees, Ellie Harrison and Katherine Surur! Both have secured Junior Fellows internships at the Library of Congress this summer! These are highly competitive positions, and we couldn't be prouder of them. Read more at

Luddy School Information and Library Science majors Katherine Surur and Ellie Harrison have earned summer internships at the Library of Congress in Washin...

04/13/2026

Next week is IU Day and our crowdfunding project to raise support for digitization of the Indiana Daily Student is underway!

* Crowdfunding closes in 19 days!
* If you are a first time IU donor, your donation is DOUBLED by the Indiana University Foundation (until the fund established for this purpose is depleted)
* We've started strong but are looking at $7800 to meet our goal.

Donations go to the Mary Brown Craig University Archives Special Projects fund and our first special project is to digitize the IDS so that anybody can have access, from anywhere in the world. Details at: https://give.myiu.org/crowdfunding/I320016600-CF.html

Thank you to all who have given!! We are truly appreciative!

Disco. Bell bottoms. Nixon impeached! The 1976 NCAA Tournament Title! Punk rock. Breaking Away. Ronald Reagan. Get your pet rock out and help us digitize the Indiana Daily Student newspaper from April 1973 to April 1983.

04/09/2026

This year marks the 75th running of the Little 500 and there's been so much excitement - and so many questions for us! Did you know there are SO many digitized archival resources about the race you can access from anywhere in the world? Director Dina Kellams highlights some of them in a new blog post!

If you haven’t heard, 2026 marks the 75th running of the IU Student Foundation’s Little 500! There has been a lot of excitement around this iconic Hoosier bicycle race, which remains deeply rooted in student-led philanthropy on the Bloomington campus. An anniversary like this brings plenty of in...