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REVIEW NOTICES
After the Harvest
Indiana's Historic Grain Elevators and Feed Mills
Photographs by John Bower. Text by John and Lynn Bower
(Bloomington: Studio Indiana, 2007. Pp. 144. Illustrations. Paperbound, $22.00.)
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Silent Workplace
Shops, Stores, Businesses, and Factories Where Hoosiers Once Earned a Living
Photographs by John Bower. Text by John and Lynn Bower
(Bloomington: Studio Indiana, 2008. Pp. 144. Illustrations. Paperbound, $22.00.)
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| These two books depict buildings, most empty and declining, in cities and towns across the state. The fourth and fifth in a series by southern Indi-ana photographer John Bower, they are part of Bower's ongoing effort to "capture unsung historical treasures on film." After the Harvest covers the interiors and exteriors of dozens of grain elevators and feed mills. Some are represented by one or two photographs and a simple identifying caption. Others, such as Beck's Mill in Washington County, a major restoration project, are accorded several pages and a textual accompaniment. Silent Workplace ranges more widely, picturing workplaces such as stores, barber shops, garages, and banks. The historic importance of manufacturing to Indiana's economy is shown in Bower's many photographs of buildings where furniture, sewing machines, bricks, beer, milk, and limestone, among other products, were created or processed. Bower's photographs may prompt readers to consider the buildings that are disappearing or already lost along their own country lanes, and in their small towns and cities. |
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An Army in Skirts
The World War II Letters of Frances DeBra
By Frances DeBra Brown
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2008. Pp. ix, 264. Illustrations, index. $27.95.)
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| Frances DeBra Brown offers an insightful addition to the impressive accumulation of scholarship regarding World War II. Much like James Madison's Slinging Donuts for the Boys (2008), she presents an alternate voice of the women who served in the war. As a member of the Women's Army Corps during 1944 and 1945, the Danville, Indiana, native was stationed in Europe during two key years of the war. Collected here, the letters, photographs, and personal sketches she wrote and compiled over that time open a fascinating ground-level window on the history of the conflict. Brown adds to that view, however, placing her wartime words in wider historical context by providing concise, informative introductions and explanations throughout. As a result, this work should find a home on the bookshelves of scholars, history buffs, and anyone interested in the array of personal experiences of Americans during World War II. |
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The Artists of Brown County
A DVD
Produced by Lyn Letsinger-Miller
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. 30 minutes. $14.95.)
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| Issued as a companion to the republished book of the same title, this film is recommended to all who are interested in the history of regional Amer-ican art. After introducing Brown County, Indiana, at the turn of the twentieth century, the film gives a brief history of how this rural county became home to so many artists. The producer uses period photographs and paintings by fifteen of the "core" artists of the colony, including Adolph and Ada Shulz, T. C. Steele, and Gustave Baumann. The film sketches the rise of the art colony, its gradual decline through the 1950s and 1960s, the subsequent rise of the county as a tourist attraction, and the rediscovery of the artists in the 1970s and 1980s. |
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Bloodroot
Indiana Poems
By Norbert Krapf. Photographs by David Pierini
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Pp. xix, 282. Illustrations. Paper-bound, $24.95.)
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| Anyone who doubts that poetry can reveal the history of a person or a place should read the collected poems of Indiana poet laureate Norbert Krapf. Almost 200 poems, written over a 35-year period, speak to growing up among the small towns and farms of the Hoosier countryside. Krapf imagines the experiences of a wide variety of Hoosiers, including the first white pioneers arriving in the forests of Indiana territory, a Civil War veteran, and a fan who dreams of becoming Peyton Manning's receiver. David Pierini's evocative photographs illustrate many of the poems. |
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