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HPS annual meeting to offer peek at archives treasures
Rarely seen artifacts will be presented at the Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County’s (HPS) annual meeting on Thursday, March 19.
The 7 p.m. public event will take place in the media classroom on the lower level of the Roy O. West Library at DePauw University, 11 E. Larrabee St. in Greencastle.
After a brief business meeting, the floor will be given to Wesley W. Wilson, who has been the coordinator of archives and special collections at DePauw for more than 35 years. In his talk, titled “Safely Tucked Away: Seldom Seen Treasures From the Archives,” he’ll detail some of the more unusual items in the collection and how one would go about finding them.
Archivist Wilson has a personal list of favorites he plans to share with the audience. Attendees will learn about the oldest, the biggest and the smallest articles in the collection. Contents of a special safe will be revealed. One item he characterizes as the “strangest” in the assemblage is something more likely to be seen in a police lab than a collegiate library.
After the presentation, guests will be invited upstairs to see the archives themselves (an elevator is available). Selected items will be on display in the reading room, including the treasured original diary of James Riley Weaver, who was a Union cavalry officer during the Civil War and later a professor at DePauw. Wilson is co-editor of the book that was published last year containing Weaver’s 666 consecutive days of journal entries, the majority of them penned while in Confederate prisons. Copies of James Riley Weaver’s Civil War will be on hand and available for purchase.
Since renovations of the Roy O. West Library will be beginning soon, this will be the last opportunity to tour the archives and see some of the collections before they are secured in off-site storage.
Among Wilson’s many credentials, he is a member of the State Historic Records Advisory Board and the Academy of Certified Archivists. Recently he was honored with the Sister M. Claude Lane Memorial Award by the Society of American Archivists.
HPS is an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the historic structures and heritage of the Putnam County area. Projects include the restoration of the Civil War Monument, installation of the Putnam County Courthouse clocks, and most recently, providing signs for four National Register Historic Districts. This last enterprise was made possible by a partnership with the City of Greencastle and additional funds from the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Those wishing to join HPS or donate may do so by mailing checks to P.O. Box 46135, Greencastle IN 46135, or by visiting the website HeritagePreservationSociety.org. Memberships are available at $25 for an individual, $35 household, $50 advocate, $100 guardian and $200 preservationist level.
Parking for the event is available behind the Roy O. West library in two lots on Indiana Street. The library parking lot is located directly behind the building, but has stairs and requires walking around to the front doors. The Olin lot at the corner of Indiana and Larrabee streets is across from a ramp leading to the south side door that opens into the lower level, where the meeting will begin.