09/01/2026
Can You Help Us Find a Piece of Terre Haute History?
We’re sharing a special request from author and researcher Kathleen Langone, who will be visiting the History Center on September 11 to present her program, “Amalia Kussner – An Amazing Hoosier Artist in the Gilded Age.”
Kathleen has been researching the artwork of Amalia Kussner, a Terre Haute-born artist who became internationally known for her miniature portraits and decorative artwork in the late 19th century.
Records and newspaper accounts indicate that Kussner created miniature portraits for several prominent Terre Haute families during the 1880s, including:
• Crawford Fairbanks
• Charles Minshall
• Stephen Reynolds and his family
• And potentially others still waiting to be identified!
Kathleen is also searching for information about a particularly intriguing piece of Kussner’s work. An October 1884 Daily Wabash Express article documented a series of small murals painted on tiles that were created for the home of Dr. Allen Pence in Terre Haute. Two of the pieces were titled Morning and Evening.
One of these tiles has survived in a private family collection, but documentation suggests that additional pieces were created. Dr. Pence was living at 115 South Second Street in 1880, although the home and street have since changed or disappeared.
Could one of these pieces still be out there?
Perhaps a Kussner miniature portrait has been passed down through your family. Maybe you have an old photograph of one, an artwork with an intriguing signature, or family records that mention Kussner. Or perhaps you know something about the Pence home or the missing Morning and Evening tiles.
We’d love to hear from you! Even a photograph, family story, name, or small clue could help Kathleen piece together the story of Amalia Kussner’s work in Terre Haute.
If you have information that might help, please comment below or send us a private message, and we’ll make sure it gets to Kathleen.
And don't miss Kathleen Langone’s presentation at the Vigo County History Center on September 11 at 5:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.
Who knows? We may discover that a little piece of Amalia Kussner’s artistic legacy has been hiding in a Terre Haute family collection all along.
Photo: Kussner tile in the collection of the Vigo County History Center will be displayed for special program on Sept. 11th.
