Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mike Linderman, 812.853.3956, [email protected]

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The family of Ida Black, the wife of famed Indiana Archaeologist Glenn A. Black, has returned, with love, the couple’s personal effects to Angel Mounds State Historic Site after 52 years. The Blacks lived on the site from April 1939 until his death in September 1964. Black is considered the only professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana ancient history through the 1960s.

“Through this collection of photographs, letters and other mementos, we hope to expand on the interpretation of the friendship between Black and pharmaceutical industrialist and philanthropist Eli Lilly and how their relationship affected the development of Angel Mounds and the science of archaeology,” said Haley Tallman, Angel Mounds State Historic Site program developer. “Through public programs and exhibitions utilizing these pieces, we will be able to show an entirely new side of Angel Mounds.”

Items donated include Black’s roll top desk, more than 1,700 images from the couple’s personal photo albums and slide collection, binoculars and the first trowel used on the Work Projects Administration (WPA) excavations on the site in May 1939.

“One major item to highlight is a leather bound edition of Eli Lilly’s Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana signed by Lilly to Black,” added Tallman.

For more information, please contact Angel Mounds Site Manager Mike Linderman at 812.853.3956 or [email protected].

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Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located in southern Indiana in Evansville. Part of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, Angel Mounds was a thriving ancient metropolis for Mississippian Indians more than 500 years ago. Today, it is an important site for excavation and research on one of Indiana’s native cultures. For more information, call 812.853.3956 or visit indianamuseum.org/angel-mounds.