Calendar of Events

La Fête de St Jean Baptiste @ Fort Ouiatenon

Jun 3 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

This event will showcase the material culture, life ways and skills of the French Occupation of Fort Ouiatenon circa 1740-1760. Additionally, vignettes and activities of period Midsummer Festivals will be held to showcase what colonial french people’s may have done to celebrate religious holidays in the time.

While life was often hard and unforgiving on the edges of the fledgling colonial empires in North America, people still knew how to have fun. In France, and in the New French Colony of Canada which included today’s State of Indiana and Fort Ouiatenon, feast days of the Saints in the Catholic church often were used as excuses to stop working and to have a celebration. The most famous of these midsummer celebrations for the French Colonists, traditionally celebrated with food, bonfires, and in Canada an odd twist on the Maypole ceremony, is the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. La Compagnie des Beaux Eaux is the sponsor of this living history event. The event is free to the public.

Categories: Public Program Tags: fort ouiatenon history living history

Family Day at the Fort: Games Children Played @ Fort Ouiatenon Historical Park

Tickets

Jun 3 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Children will be introduced to popular games played by the French and Native children at Fort Ouiatenon such as foot races, graces, and other games of chance and skill!

Presented by Leslie Conwell

Categories: Public Program Tags: fort ouiatenon games historic games

Jun

Thu

Stories Buildings Tell @ The History Center

Tickets

Jun 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Presented by Tommy Kleckner, Director of the Western Regional Office at Indiana Landmarks.

Learn how details in buildings can reveal the past and tell stories of the people who occupied them. We guarantee you’ll never look at old buildings the same way again. Tippecanoe County buildings will be featured.

This event is graciously sponsored by the National Group.

Categories: Public Program Tags: architecture indiana landmarks tippecanoe county

Jun

Mon

School of the Artifact: Weird Whatzits @ The History Center

Tickets

Jun 12 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

During excavations at Fort Ouiatenon (1717-1791) archaeologists occasionally found objects that were unusual or unexpected. Some have not been able to be identified as to what their purpose was! Come put your history knowledge to the test to see if YOU can help identify some of these “Weird Whatzits!”

Presented by Leslie and Rick Conwell.

This event is graciously sponsored by the National Group.

Categories: Public Program Tags: artifact ouiatenon School of the Artifact tippecanoe county weird whatzits whatzit

Jun

Tue

Show & Tell: Fred Hovde @ The History Center

Tickets

Jun 20 @ 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Presented by Michael Smith.

As the 7th president of Purdue University, Hovde is a name known to many in the greater Lafayette Area. Join Michael Smith to learn more about the origin and legacy of Fred Hovde.

Learn more about Show & Tell programs: Remember grade school Show & Tell, and how you looked forward to it all week? We all brought things from home that we thought were special or that were important to us. Recapture that school magic with TCHA’s Show & Tell programs! Bring a favorite piece from your collections, share what you know with others in the audience, and learn something new! Afterwards, sit back in your chair and engage with the presenter’s program.

Categories: Public Program Tags: Fred Hovde show and tell tippecanoe county

Jun

Sat

Telling Quilt Stories @ The History Center

Tickets

Jun 24 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Join the Tippecanoe County Historical Association and the Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild for a celebration of historic quilts. Bring your historic quilt for help with textile and pattern identification, learn about hand and machine quilting and participate in children’s activities. Historic quilts from the collection of TCHA and guild members will also be on display.

A special preview for members of TCHA and the guild will be available Friday, June 23 from 6-8 pm.

Categories: Member Event Public Program Tags: exhibit history quilts sewing textiles

Jul

Tue

Show & Tell: The Dapper Man About Town: George Ade @ The History Center

Tickets

Jul 11 @ 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Presented by Pete Bill.

John T. McCutcheon once described George Ade as someone “who would always stand out in a room”. From his earliest days as a student at Purdue and Sigma Chi fraternity, to his flop-house days in Chicago as a cub reporter, to his later career as a writer, poet, and playwright, George Ade always stood out mostly by being “just a little different” … or, perhaps, “just a little odd”. Come hear some of the tales and adventures of “The Aesop of Indiana” as he traveled through life from Purdue to Chicago to his eventual Hazelden estate in nearby Brook, Indiana.

Categories: Public Program Tags: George Ade show and tell tippecanoe county

Jul

Thu

J.C. Allen: Farm life in the 20th Century Through Photos @ The History Center

Tickets

Jul 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Presented by Fred Whitford

Who among us has not spent hours studying photographs of family and friends? Images transport us to another time, another place, another state of being. Photographs of young children playing in the yard, cradling yellow chicks, or starting school air something deep within us. John Calvin Allen captured a rich collection of photographs depicting farm life during much of the twentieth century in Indiana. Allen consistently focused his lens upon farms and rural communities, resulting in a rare glimpse of agriculture and rural life at that time. Enjoy reliving the early days of agriculture from the transition from pioneer practices to scientific methodologies.

This event is graciously sponsored by the National Group.

Categories: Public Program Tags: 20th century agriculture farm life j.c. allen photography tippecanoe county

Aug

Tue

Tippecanoe County and Indiana State Gunmakers of Note @ The History Center

Tickets

Aug 8 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Presented by Rick Conwell & Jeff Jaeger

In the mid-nineteenth century more than a dozen gunmakers worked in Lafayette and Tippecanoe County, as well as hundreds more statewide. Many of these men have interesting, often idiosyncratic, life stories set in the era of the Wabash and Erie Canal, the coming of the railroad, western expansion, and the early industrial revolution. For this program, RIck Conwell and author/researcher Jeff Jaeger have assembled a special selection of rifles made by these local and regional makers and gathered from both public and private sources to illustrate their biographies.

This event is graciously sponsored by the National Group.

Categories: Public Program Tags: biography gun parts tippecanoe county

Aug

Thu

History of St. Elizabeth Hospital @ The History Center

Tickets

Aug 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Presented by Sister M. Petra Nielsen, Sister of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration and Vice President of Mission Integration for Franciscan Health Michigan City

Six Sisters of Saint Francis arrived from Olpe, Germany on December 14, 1875 to establish a community of their order and a hospital in Lafayette, Indiana. Nearly 150 years have passed since their arrival.

Sister M. Petra Nielsen, Sister of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration and Vice President of Mission Integration for Franciscan Health Michigan City will speak about the history of the founding and further development and growth of St. Elizabeth Hospital and the School of Nursing. She will include some stories and anecdotes, as well as pictures from their Archives.

This event is graciously sponsored by the National Group.

Categories: Public Program Tags: hospital history Sister M. Petra Nielsen St. Elizabeth hospital tippecanoe county

June – August 2023 Jun – Aug 2023

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