Department of History

world map TITLE: Map of the World from the best authorities, by Mathew Carey (1760-1839), 1795.
DESCRIPTION: This late eighteenth-century world map was far more complete than those made even fifty years earlier, and drew on knowledge gleaned from centuries of European efforts to explore, understand, and conquer the globe. It reflects both the intellectual achievements of the age of Enlightenment, and the darker history of European colonialism. The history department is home to several scholars engaged in the interdisciplinary study of these themes through Indiana University's Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies. You can learn more about European colonial legacies and independent indigenous histories around the globe from scholars in the Latin American, African and Asian fields.
SOURCE: Library of Congress, American Memory, Map Collections.
TITLE: Military Training, ca. 1943
DESCRIPTION: World War II saw unprecedented mobilization of civilian populations for national military aims.  Here Japanese middle-school girls participate in rifle practice.  To learn more about war and peace in modern Asia, explore courses by Scott O'Bryan.

TITLE: "America," Hiroshige II, ca. 1869

DESCRIPTION: This nineteenth-century Japanese print was part of a series depicting the inhabitants of the countries of the world.  It belongs to a genre called "Yokohama-e" (pictures of Yokohama), an artistic reflection of Japan's increasing engagement with the West after 1850. 

A castle TITLE: Trokai Castle in present-day Lithuania
DESCRIPTION: The crusader castle is located in a town that was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and subsequently of the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the tsarist Russia empire, interwar Poland, and the postwar Soviet Union. Today the town belongs to Lithuania.  Students interested in the lands of the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian tsarist empire, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic states should explore courses by Professors Jeffrey Veidlinger, Toivo Raun, Hiroaki Kuromiya, David Ransel and Ben Eklof.
SOURCE: Photograph by Timothy Snyder, 2003.
A globe balanced by gun points TITLE: "The European Balance of Power," lithograph by Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Le Charivari, December 1, 1866
DESCRIPTION: Daumier depicts the rising tide of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism in late nineteenth-century Europe. The emergence of Prussia as a major European military and economic force had helped to disrupt the European balance of power, one reason for the conflicts that culminated in the First World War in 1914. Faculty in the Modern European field teach many courses that trace these developments and explore their enduring consequences.
SOURCE: Brandeis University, Special Collections.
A cable car TITLE: State Street Cable Car, displayed at the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948
DESCRIPTION: Through fairs and exhibitions, twentieth-century Americans cast a positive light on the often-troubled history of their cities. IU's faculty offer a variety of courses on the history of the U.S. city, as well as on the role of public memory and commemoration in many cultures.
SOURCE: Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives/Digital Library Program.
A man in coat and hat and wearing a mask TITLE: "The Plague Doctor," from Giovanni Grevembroch (d. 1807), Gli Abiti da'Veneziani di quasi ogni età com diligenza raccolti e dipinti [The costumes of Venetians of almost every age, diligently collected and drawn]
DESCRIPTION: During the devastating plague epidemics that struck Europe between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, people working with the sick developed elaborate protective costumes. The headgear was made of leather or heavily oiled cloth, and the metal beak was packed with herbs and garlic to filter tainted air and bad odors, believed to cause the plague. Indiana University’s Center for the History of Medicine is home to many scholars whose research and teaching explore the ways humans have understood and coped with disease. You can also learn more about political and cultural consequences of mass death, and the social context for costumes and disguises, in courses offered in the history department’s Medieval and Early Modern fields.
SOURCE: Caitilín Inghean Tomáis uí Dhulbihir
revolutionary cockade

TITLE: Revolutionary Cockade, ca. 1795
DESCRIPTION: In 1790s France and in other parts of the Atlantic world—such as the young United States or the Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue—people on the street wore cockades to indicate revolutionary political allegiance. Courses on the revolutionary era are taught by Sarah Knott, Robert Schneider and Rebecca Spang.

sOURCE:
Harriet Tubman TITLE: Harriet Tubman, ca. 1860-1875, photographed by H. B. Lindsley, photographer
DESCRIPTION: Born a slave, Tubman escaped to freedom as a young woman and became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She led dozens of slaves to freedom, earning her the title of the “Moses” of her people, and was also a scout for the Union Army. Students can learn more about Tubman and the experiences of other African American women in courses taught by Professor Amrita Myers. You can find many other history faculty whose work explores ideas about gender and race in the Gender and Sexuality and African Diaspora fields.
SOURCE: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
An etching of men standing in a line TITLE: "Bread Line—No One Has Starved," etching by Reginald Marsh, 1932
DESCRIPTION: In many places in the world the Great Depression and the massive unemployment it caused among able-bodied men were experienced as an attack on men's self-worth and masculinity. Marsh manages to convey this feeling without a single word in this stark image. Indiana University offers a variety of courses in which the Great Depression figures prominently, including H101, The World from 1900 to 1945.
SOURCE: Representing America: The Ken Trevey Collection of American Realist Prints. Exhibited at the University of California at Santa Barbara Art Museum, 1995.