BUILDING A NATION: INDIANA LIMESTONE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

From the early 1900s through the 1980s, the Indiana Limestone Company, one of the largest limestone quarriers and fabricators in North America, maintained a collection of professional photographs. Used for marketing purposes to illustrate architectural styles and uses of limestone, the photographs feature completed buildings, in-progress construction, and details of decorative carvings and finishings that used the Salem Limestone (Mississippian). The collection contains 10,000 to 12,000 7.5- x 9.5-inch black and white photographs mounted on linen and most have labels attached to the backing. These labels provide metadata on the location of the building, owner, date of construction, builder, architect and other information, such as the stone quarrier, mill, and stone quality. The name or company of the professional photographer is noted on many of the photographs. The photos in the collection are of buildings constructed from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Some photographs also contain images of mill and quarry workers and carvers from south-central Indiana. Although they are in generally good physical condition, the photographs were stored in an unstable environment in a building without climate control. They have been removed from the building and are now housed at the Indiana University Geology Library.

Pending funding, the Indiana Geological Survey is planning to clean, stabilize, and scan this previously unknown collection of photographs. We will compile metadata from the labels to create a comprehensive geographic information system and interactive website. Scholars, researchers, architects, and the public will be able to use the geospatial interface to view the photograph and location of each building, as well as search the associated metadata by fields such as date, architectural style, limestone type, or building use. Moreover, this interface will enable in-depth analysis of the data and construction of “story maps,” documenting the pervasive use of Salem Limestone through time and across the United States.