Above: Photograph of Theophilus Wylie in his classroom for Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Physics and Astronomy. Source: Indiana University Archives, ca. 1876
This news item authored by Megan Everett, Content Intern for Communications, IU Libraries 2018
BLOOMINGTON, Ind., - IU Libraries Wylie House Museum completed a web-based project highlighting the lives of Andrew and Theophilus A. Wylie through digitized documents. The now digitized collections integrate the materials into the curriculum of Indiana University students. Scholars are able to research and understand IU history, local history, and Wylie history. The project is a collaborative effort by Wylie House Museum director, Carey Beam and Shawn Martin, IDEASc fellow at the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering (SICE), and funded by a grant from the IU Office of the Bicentennial.
The website focuses on two men from the same family who both worked for Indiana University. Andrew and Theophilus Wylie: Leadership at Indiana University, 1820 – 1890 (http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/wyliehouse/leadership) explores Indiana’s long history throughout the lives of the two cousins. Andrew Wylie was the first president of Indiana University. Theophilus A. Wylie was a long-serving faculty member and one-time interim president.
“These historical artifacts have many stories to tell about how the Wylie family affected the university and Bloomington communities” said director of Wylie House Museum, Carey Beam.
The site is already in use by IU classes and is being used as an instructional model. Martin, a doctoral candidate in SICE, and manager for the project, taught modules in both history and information science classes in the spring of 2018. Students used the website as a way to help create proposals, work on technical issues in their own digital projects, and to present their own historical arguments using online materials.
Students and faculty learned how the university’s heritage connects to its present and future by exploring the Wylie House materials. The goals of this website are to make the museum and archival materials more readily available, design a new website showcasing those materials, initiate learning opportunities for students at Indiana University and beyond, and establish a foundation for continuing to expand this project.
This project not only enhances Indiana University’s core mission of education and research but the project also connects the past, present, and future of Indiana University.
• Direct link to photo of 1876 Science Classroom at Indiana University
About Wylie House Museum
The Wylie House Museum invites visitors to experience the story of the Indiana University campus and the hometown of Bloomington through the restored 1835 home of Andrew Wylie, IU’s first president. The Museum’s heirloom gardens provide historic interpretation as well as active seed-saving programs and education. Today, Wylie House is owned and operated by Indiana University Libraries as an historic house museum presenting the Wylie home in 1840. The museum is open to the public for tours and supports the University teaching mission, providing students and faculty with access to the museum and its collections for course integration and research opportunities. The museum's Morton C. Bradley, Jr. Education Center, situated next door to the museum, provides space for staff offices, exhibitions, and class meetings.
