Whether it’s an undergrad learning how to track down just the right article to cite in a research paper or a faculty member collaborating with a librarian on a digital humanities project, amazing discoveries happen inside the walls of the IU Libraries – and beyond! – every day. One such discovery happened recently when IU’s Director of University Archives, Dina Kellams, spotted a miniscule item in a newspaper from 1898 and followed up on her own curiosity. The story of Carrie Parker, the first African-American woman to attend Indiana University, had been lost to history but thanks to Kellams’ sleuthing (not to mention her use of valuable library resources like NewspaperARCHIVE, Ancestry Library Edition, and African American Newspapers 1827-1998) we now know much more about this IU pioneer.

Read more about the search for Carrie Parker in the Archives’ blog, Blogging Hoosier History, or read the Bloomington Herald-Times coverage of the family's recent visit to IU (accessible from workstations in the Herman B Wells Library or with a personal Herald-Times subscription).