Indiana Farmer 1851-1917

The State of Hoosier Agriculture in the Pre- and Post-Civil War Years

There are many publications that describe the political and economic conditions prior to, during, and following the Civil War that are accessible, though only if one has access to the original tabloid newspaper, or if one has access to a commercial vendor of early American periodicals.

One publication, however, that captured rural Hoosier life prior to the war, Indiana Farmer, is now available to the general public through digitization.

About Indiana Farmer

Indiana Farmer captured rural Hoosier life between 1851 and 1917. The newspaper recorded the evolution and growth of the Hoosier state during that time. These publications provide a rich history of the Hoosier farmstead that was not addressed in other agricultural magazines of that time period.

During and immediately following the end of the Civil War, the Northwestern Farmer, emerged as the agricultural magazine for Hoosiers returning to the farm. Published in Indianapolis until 1873, it was the "magazine of rural life." The newspaper was known for providing tips to Hoosier on their daily life.

On September 6, 1873, the Indiana State Board of Agriculture took it over as its house organ, changed the format from monthly to weekly, and changed the name to Indiana Farmer, volume 8, number 1, new series. It always included etchings to accompany articles, switching to photographs in the mid 1890s.

During the printing of Indiana Farmer, Purdue University was founded, the Indiana State Fair was established and the transition to a mechanized society took place; most noted with the story of Studebaker's production of wagons to automobiles.

Readers could follow the economic impact of the war on Hoosier farmers through the advertisements for farm equipment and the reports on average crop yield and livestock prices. Or realize as one farmer did who lamented in a letter to the editor, that the war would change the future market for Hoosiers products and new crops must be evaluated.

Enjoy the trip through history as you search through the pages of the newspapers!

Digitizing the Indiana Farmer

The Indiana Farmer project is part of the Indiana Memory Digital Library and is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Indiana State Library.

Thanks to Purdue University Libraries staff, for the first time in history, the newspaper is indexed, exceeding more than 36,000 pages that are full-text searchable through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In addition, downloads of any issue in PDF format are available.

Scanning and metadata collection began in September 2010 and ended in May 2011.

Digitization addresses the needs of researchers who have utilized the print publication for many years and now provides full-text access without further destruction of the material.