This marks another addition to the regular feature here at Little Indiana: Indiana Blogs. If you are an Indiana Blogger, please use the contact form and send me an email. You may be featured right here on Little Indiana.
Indiana Blogs: Decatur County History
Decatur County History is an Indiana blog that is certainly a unique addition to a long line of Featured Indiana Bloggers because this one is part of the Greensburg-Decatur County Public Library.
But unlike other library blogs you may have seen, this one doesn’t boast of new books to read or after-school events. It has a unique purpose: to share the county history with readers. Old school pictures, sporting events, family reunions–whatever it is, if it happened in the Greensburg area, there’s a good chance it will end up here.
Indiana Blogs: Decatur County History
Why did you start Decatur County History?
A blog seemed like a great way to share our county’s history with a wide audience, and crowd-sourcing is so helpful for adding context to historic photos. When people can leave comments and share their own memories, history becomes interactive and, therefore, interesting!
I’ve had a personal blog since 2011. I launched Decatur County History in January 2012.
Are you the only writer/historian behind Decatur County History or is there a team?
I am currently the only person writing for the blog, but I have featured some wonderful guest posts by Raina Regan, an architectural historian; Bryan Robbins, the director of Main Street Greensburg; and Greg Meyer, a local historian.
What are three of your most favorite posts?
- The pioneering women of Greensburg girls’ sports — I wrote this post during women’s history month last year. It was really fun to look back through the old yearbooks and trace the beginnings of organized girls’ sports in Decatur County.
- Greensburg in the silent film era — I have always loved old theaters, and seeing The Artist re-ignited my passion! I had a lot of fun researching this post. I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been to go to one of the very first talking pictures!
- This year, give the gift of listening — I was really excited to discover George Granholt’s interview with one of Decatur County’s WWII veterans, Melvin Robbins, and the National Day of Listening seemed like a great opportunity to share it on the blog.
What keeps you ready and raring to post? Why do you blog?
Mainly because I love it! I love writing and doing research, and during the warm months I have a great time traveling around the county to take pictures of historic places. Sharing tidbits of history on the blog is a great way to get more people interested in it.
Have you learned anything new since diving into your county’s history? What did you find out?
I have learned so much! I was never interested in history until I started doing genealogy. I discovered that local history makes the past personal, and that makes it much more interesting.
I try to find ways to get more people interested in their own roots by connecting local stories to larger events of the time period to show how history affected individuals. It’s one thing to learn the facts about WWII; it’s another thing entirely to learn how WWII changed your own family and how your life today might be different because of it.
If another town library sees this idea and wants to make it their own, do you have any advice for them?
Consistency is really important.
The biggest mistake I made was starting the blog right before we began a library renovation. Things got really busy and I didn’t have much time to work on the blog, so there were no new posts for a pretty long period of time during 2012.
Now, I use Blogger’s scheduling feature to schedule posts weeks ahead of time. This way, a new post goes up no matter how busy I am with other things. It has really helped me to stay on top of the blog and my other duties as well.
As a librarian, I’m going to guess you are also a reader! What are your five favorite books of all time?
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith and The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham are my all-time favorite novels.
The first novel I remember being absolutely engrossed in was Mandy by Julie Andrews. I also love Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Cristina Bjork, a book my mother gave me when I was a child, and I’m a big fan of the Eloise books by Kay Thompson, especially Eloise in Paris!
Is there anything else that you would like Little Indiana readers to know about you or your blog?
Decatur County History is not just for people from Decatur County! I hope it will inspire readers to get to know more about their own towns and share what they learn.
No matter where you live: explore it, learn about it, and tell people why you love it!
Love the Place You Live
I hope that this blog inspires you to think a bit differently about the place that you live–and to share those images and documents you have with others.
Small Towns: Destinations, not Drive-Thrus! I’m Jessica Nunemaker and THIS is Little Indiana.
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