Location

Bloomington, with its galleries and bookstores, is a safe, friendly college town in the rolling hills of southern Indiana, an hour’s drive from the Indianapolis International Airport and four hours from Chicago.  It is home to the internationally renowned Jacobs School of Music, which each summer hosts a high-profile classical music festival that attracts thousands of visitors.  Participants will have time in the evenings to attend these musical events and concerts.   National Geographic ranked Bloomington one of America’s “top adventure towns” thanks to the proximity of the Hoosier National Forest and Lake Monroe, the site of a dramatically successful reintroduction of the bald eagle. Other amenities include art museums, world-renowned libraries, and athletic facilities.

Many of our meetings will take place at the Lilly Library, a fully wired research facility with a particularly rich collection of 19th-century books. The Lilly Library is one of the premier rare books libraries in the world, which houses more than 400,000 rare books and 7 millions manuscripts.  The Lilly owns Audubon’s magnificent Double Elephant Folio, as well as first editions of his other publications, and the Lilly’s staff—especially Curator of Rare Books, Joel Silver—will be on hand to assist participants during their four-week stay.  Participants might well want to use some of their spare time to explore other non-related Audubon holdings of the library as well as of other collections on campus (each participant will be issued a temporary library card).  We will meet in the Lilly’s splendid Slocum Room, surrounded by displays of intricate puzzles the library has collected.  Indiana University’s tree-lined campus, a sprawling collection of historic limestone buildings, is widely known as one of the most beautiful college settings in the United States.