Hibben artworks on digital display

The Hibben family papers are a tremendous gem in the Indiana State Library. With records, correspondence, pictures and artworks from 1840 to 1937, there is a wide breadth of material among the collection. However, today we are going to look at the artists of the family whose works the Indiana State library is lucky enough to have: Louise Douglas Hibben, her brother Thomas Entrekin Hibben, Sr., and his son, Thomas Entrekin Hibben, Jr.Louise Hibben was born in 1867 and was the youngest of three children born to James Samuel Hibben. Taking after her older brother Thomas, Hibben would see art as a way to showcase the natural world around her, though her portrayals tended to get more abstract the longer she worked. Primarily specializing as a painter, Hibben has a range of pieces that have been collected by the State Library and her works have been shown in galleries from The Indiana Museum of Art at Newfields to the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Thomas Entrekin Hibben, Sr. was a successful businessman and artist working in both Rushville then Indianapolis. Mainly focusing on etchings and lithographs, Hibben would work on improving the etching process of the time himself but have an artistic drive to capture real life scenes as still lives or landscapes. Inspiring both his little sister and his son, Hibben, Sr. was a force for the artistic endeavors in Indiana in the two communities he was a part of, becoming known as an acknowledged patron of the arts and was the first artist at the Indianapolis News.

Thomas Entrekin Hibben, Jr. was an architect by trade, studying at Princeton, Penn and schools in London and Paris, but like his father before him loved capturing the buildings and landscapes around himself in the form of drawings and lithographs. Hibben, Jr. also helped design buildings for Butler University and was involved in the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. He served in both world wars, would act as a governmental advisor for several New Deal and foreign economic development programs, and would represent the United States as an ambassador to Pakistan.

These aren’t all of the artists in the Hibben family lineage, as Thomas Entrekin Sr.’s daughter Helene Louise Hibben would be quite talented artist herself, specializing in sculptures, particularly bronze. Helene Hibben studied under well-known sculptures Lorado Taft and James Earle Fraser and even had some of her art purchased by the Library of Congress, a couple of her bas-relief portraits. The Indiana State Library does not currently have any pieces by Helene Hibben, but the materials collected about the Hibben family that the library currently houses can be viewed here.

This blog post was submitted by A.J. Chrapliwy, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. 

John H. Holliday Civil War pamphlets

Among the many special collections housed at the Indiana State Library is the Holliday Collection, named for its donor and prominent Indianapolis citizen, John H. Holliday.  Born in 1846, Holliday was raised and educated in Indiana and eventually founded the Indianapolis News, one of the city’s largest newspapers at the time. He briefly served with the 137th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. He died in 1921 and afterward his estate donated numerous books, letters and other materials to the Indiana State Library.

The donated collection contains hundreds of pamphlets covering issues of both local and national interest. These pamphlets were loosely grouped together by topic and bound into large and unwieldy books. Recently, State Library’s Preservation Department has been hard at work painstakingly removing them from their old bindings and fixing any damage. Afterward, they are sent to the Catalog Division to ensure that they can be searched via the online catalog.

Here are some examples of recently added pamphlets covering various issues related to the American Civil War.

One of the earliest pamphlets in the collection is this tract by abolitionist Theodore Parker in which he defends John Brown’s attempt in 1859 to initiate an armed slave revolt after conducting a raid on the United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

This pamphlet is a compilation of vignettes critical of the military actions of U.S. Army General George McClellan. It was written by George Wilkes, a war correspondent who was present at many battles and whose public criticism of McClellan contributed to the latter being removed from command in 1862 after the Battle of Antietam.

This leaflet describes the execution of Robert Gay, believed to be the first instance of an execution of a U.S. army soldier on the grounds of desertion. Gay, a member of the 71st Indiana Volunteers, was found guilty of defecting to the Confederacy and was executed March 27, 1863 at Camp Morton, located in Indianapolis.

To find more materials on the Civil War, please search the Indiana State Library’s online catalog.

This blog post was written by Jocelyn Lewis, Catalog Division supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at 317-232-3678 or “Ask-A-Librarian.”