History Beneath Us - Beginning

A student helps map elevations with surveying equipment. Knowing how deep they are digging is critical to archaeologists' work, so preparations require taking initial elevations of the ground. As they dig, the crew will measure everything in centimeters.

Another part of preparations is marking bags for artifacts. All the dirt is screened and any artifacts put into the bag that corresponds to the layer of earth it was taken from. This helps archaeologists know what objects were found near the surface and what was deeper.

Chris Moore of the University of Indianapolis shows two students how to scrape away layers of dirt with trowels.

One of the crew uncovers a drainage tile in one of the units. Though not part of the reflecting pool, this is an artifact that tells the history of this part of the grounds.

Skylight - Here and Gone

Lew Wallace installed a stained glass window in the center of the skylight in his Study. Just below the stained glass sat scrolled ironwork.

This week workers removed the stained glass for cleaning and repairs, leaving the ironwork in place. They also removed a couple of the panels of frosted plexiglass that now compose the skylight. Wallace originally had clear glass, and so the peeks through the empty spaces through the windows in the cupola show a partial view of what he must have enjoyed daily.

The Study Restoration Project Has Begun!

Work on the Study Restoration Project began this week with construction workers setting up scaffolds and starting repairs. Workers are assessing and preparing to remove the copper roof in sections. They plan to work on the building one side at a time, so visitors to the site can get unobstructed photos of the photogenic Study. This is the first time in 112 years that full-scale construction has taken place on the building, though, so pictures with scaffolding are quite unique!



In addition to beginning roof repairs, workers also began resetting the front steps into the Study.





The Study's interior will be inaccessible to visitors during the Restoration Project as workers repair the skylight and plaster damaged by water leaking into the building. The safety of the General's Study is a priority, and we took measures to protect the interior features that we couldn't remove with the rest of the artifacts.



The Museum will remain open to visitors and share Lew Wallace's legacy through this year's exhibit, Sanctuary: Preserving the Legacy of Lew Wallace, featuring artifacts and photos of the General, and also through guided tours of the Study exterior. We hope you can stop by and see history happen!

“History Beneath Us” Program Explores Wallace’s Reflecting Pond

As work was completed on General Lew Wallace’s personal study building in 1898, the General sought to add some water features adjacent to the now-iconic building. He had a fish-stocked moat ring the eastern half of the study, and to the north, he placed a stone-rimmed reflecting pool by which visitors could sit and appreciate the natural beauty of Wallace’s land in Crawfordsville’s Elston Grove.

Wallace filled in the reflecting pond and moat around 1902 due to safety and stability concerns, and these features have remained largely unknown to visitors in the decades since. The latest program sponsored by the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum aims to change that. During the weekend of September 18-19, the Museum will host Crawfordsville native Anne Moore and professional archaeologists from Weintraut & Associates in Zionsville and the University of Indianapolis in “History Beneath Us”, a planned excavation of the General’s reflecting pool where the public is invited to watch and take part.

“We want to uncover the reflecting pool to determine the location and structure of the feature and better interpret it during tours of the site,” said Amanda Wesselmann, Associate Director of the Museum. “We contacted Anne Moore, and she helped recruit colleagues to ensure that the process is handled correctly and professionally.” Weintraut & Associates and the University of Indianapolis will provide professional archaeologists to oversee the excavation, as well as student workers and excavation equipment.

This is a pilot archaeology program for the Museum, which may host further excavations of other areas of interest on the General’s grounds in the future. “Local lore has always held that Lew Wallace buried Old John, his Civil War horse, in the southeastern corner of the grounds,” said Wesselmann. “That is an area that we would definitely like to investigate.”

During the program, excavators will scrape down layers of earth with trowels to uncover the reflecting pool, sift dirt through screens to find small artifacts, and map the site with a variety of equipment. Visitors to the grounds will be able to observe the archaeologists at work, examine the findings as they are uncovered, and participate in parts of the process.

Excavation for the “History Beneath Us” program is free and open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19. For more information on this and other programs at the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum, call 765-362-5769 or email study@ben-hur.com.

Taste Countdown - 7 days!

Only one week left until the 2010 Taste of Montgomery County! We're putting on the finishing touches to make sure everything goes smoothly, and it will almost certianly be the best Taste yet. In addition to the great music line-up of Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band, Green Room Rockers, and Midnight Special, the food also promises to deliver something for everyone.

Some returning favorites include The Juniper Spoon, Joey's Main Street Cafe, The Iron Gate, China Inn, The Big Dipper, A Country A-Fair, Bon Apetit, Two Guys Cooking, Miller's Quality Meats and Catering, Arthur's Cafe, Norvell's BBQ & Catering, Moody Meats, Applebee's and Buffalo Wild Wings. Menu items include midwestern favorites such as barbecue sandwiches and ice cream, and also branch into more exotic territory with Mediterranean orzo salad, low country boil, and sushi.

Newcomers to this year's Taste include Hawg Wild BBQ, Athens Nutrition and Smoothies, Ross Mobile Foods and Catering, Chapel Books, Patch of Blue Denim Cafe, and Las Cazuelas Mexican Restaurant. Sun King Brewing Company will debut with three different kinds of their freshly-made beer. Iced coffee, smoothies, roasted pork, and authentic enchiladas round out the menu options.

Is your mouth watering yet? Advance tickets are still available at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, Milligan's Flowers and Gifts, Kwik Kopy, the Montgomery County Visitors Bureau, and Homestead Gifts for $1 cheaper than gate prices - that's $4 for adults and $2 for students!

Have a great time supporting the Museum at the Taste on August 28!

Fly-in Visitors

The 3.5 acres of blooming trees and flowers have been host to a multitude of fly-in visitors. Birds and beetles (japanese) visited the grounds early this spring, with the cicadas, hummingbirds and butterflies soon following. The easter swallowtail, black swallowtail and the viceroy butterflies have been feasting on the lantana, salvia and butterfly bushes.

The swallowtails are the most popular with the visitors, many amazed at the bright blue on the black swallowtail. The yellow swallowtail flit from bloom to bloom, rarely holding still for a photo opportunity.

While picking green beans, i noticed two green/black striped caterpillars. Hoping to have monarch caterpillars, I researched and foundthat they are black swallowtail caterpillars. They are green with black stripes, approximately two inches long. We will keep an eye on them in the next few days and see what transpires.

Farewell, Kasey!

Today is the last day for summer intern Kasey Greer, who will be a sophomore at Indiana University Bloomington. A history major, she applied for the Rhetorical Analyst internship analyzing Lew Wallace's writings to get a sense of the man behind the actions. Since May, she has worked over 30 hours each week, which has given her opportunity to sample the many facets of working at a small museums. Kasey has been a creative and outstanding addition to the Museum. Here are some of her reflections about her experience:

"When I applied for this internship in early spring, I never would have imagined the variety of knowledge and skills that go into running a museum. Now, thanks to the staff and volunteers at the Museum, I have experienced a lot of them firsthand.

"My main project for the summer was to answer a few of the long-pondered questions about Lew Wallace to better our interpretation for guests. The two questions I decided to focus on are Lew's view of 'the woman question,' which visitors ask frequently because of his independent wife susan, and his opinions on slavery since he was a Union general.

"I first researched both, then drafted the more academic versions with all the appropriate citations. Next, I pared them down to add to the volunteers' manual. though some parts of the project, like reading all of Lew's 1003-page autobiography, were tedious at times, for the msot part I had a lot of fun discovering all I could about Lew's thought processes and opinions. I am particularly interested in questions of gender and the way it influenced culture and society at different historical time periods, so getting one man's take on the subject of women's roles particularly fascinated me.

"While my main project took up a large portion of my internship time, working 32-36 hours each week gave me plenty of time to learn more about other aspects of the Museum as well. I have given tours almost daily since the beginning of my internship, and I helped make signs and lay out the Museum newsletter. In June I had the opportunity to help move the paintings out of the Study in preparation for the roof restoration. That peek into collections work really fascinated me, and I plan to look more into that field because of my experiences. In July I assisted with the Lew Wallace Youth Academy. The kids were a lot of fun to work with, and getting to see them retire the Indiana flag using the ceremony I wrote really capped off the experience.

"Now I'm looking to the future. This fall I will be a sophomore at Indiana University Bloomington. I am majoring in history and minoring in sociology and anthropology. I took this internship hoping to gain some experience to decide if I want to stay in academia or expand the public's knowledge of history through museum work. While I have not totally made up my mind, this experience has certainly opened my eyes to the museum world."