Kitchen Cabinets and War: Indiana Magazine of History for March 2009

If these two articles aren't to your taste, the first 102 years of the Indiana Magazine of History are on line.

Nancy Hiller, "A History of Hoosier Cabinets." A New Castle, Indiana, firm attempts to ease the heavy labor of housework around the turn of the last century -- excerpted from a forthcoming book. "What differentiated the Hoosier cabinet most markedly from its predecessors . . . was its meticulously organized interior storage, a testament to the late nineteenth-century preoccupation with functional design." Or, as the magazine ads put it, "A kitchen without a cabinet is like a farm without a plow."

Frank Carroll, tr., "The 1863 Diary of William H. Carroll, Mess No. 2, Company D, 24th Indiana Volunteers." Carroll, of Daviess County, was one of five brothers who joined up. He saw action and was wounded in the attack on Vicksburg. His entry for 26 May 1863 reads in part, "Firing commenced at daylight This morning & Was kep up Stediley all day Some Rebals deserting occasionley & coming over to our Side holding a bunch of coton in their hand for a flag of peace deserters Report that Scoars of Women & children are Being kild in the citty."

In the book review section, Darrel E. Bigham of the University of Southern Indiana finds more to criticize in A Little More Freedom: African Americans Enter the Urban Midwest, 1860-1930, than the review previously blogged.

GenFest for eastern Indiana

The Indiana Genealogical Society blog takes note of the upcoming GenFest in New Castle (Henry County), Indiana, Friday and Saturday June 13 and 14. It's under the auspices of the New Castle-Henry County Public Library and the Henry County Historical Society.

As of this writing, 3 libraries, 6 vendors, 9 organizations, and 17 individuals searching numerous surnames are slated to attend. It's billed as "an old-fashioned gathering of researchers doing genealogy in East Central Indiana"; looks to me like a genealogical society meeting, minus the speakers.