The Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections Room is the archival collection of the Indianapolis Public Library. The Indianapolis Special Collections Room in the Central Library houses a variety of archival adult and children’s materials, both fiction and nonfiction books by local authors, photographs, scrapbooks, typescripts, manuscripts, autographed editions, letters, newspapers, magazines, and regalia. The collection features Kurt Vonnegut, May Wright Sewall, the Woollen family, James Whitcomb Riley, and Booth Tarkington.
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Nina Mason Pulliam, 1906-1997
Nina Mason Pulliam was born in 1906 in Martinsville, Indiana. She lived in Indiana during most of her childhood except at the age of 16 she traveled to the Arizona desert to recover from tuberculosis. When she returned to Indiana she attended college at Franklin College, Indiana University, and the University of New Mexico. She majored in journalism. After college she began her career in the publishing industry by working for Farm Life Magazine and then the Lebanon Reporter. At the Lebanon Reporter she met Eugene C. Pulliam. In 1941 the couple was married. They were married for 46 years. During this time the Pulliams purchased The Indianapolis Star, The Indianapolis News, The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette. After the death of Eugene C. Pulliam in 1975, Nina became President of Central Newspapers Inc., and publisher of The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette until 1978. Nina was the first woman admitted into the Society of Professional Journalists.
Mural
A new mural has been installed in the Indianapolis Special Collections Room on the Sixth Floor of Central Library. The artist Tom Torluemke has given it the working title, The Book of Life: The People We Know, the Experiences We Have, and the Conditions under Which We Live. More information and photographs of this mural can be found at http://www.indypl.org/readersconnection/?p=1058
Featured collections
The Indianapolis Collection contains materials relating to Indianapolis history and the Indianapolis 500, including city directories, church histories, college and high school yearbooks, biographies, theater programs, and audio-visual materials.
The Indianapolis Authors collection of first editions of Meredith Nicholson, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarkington, and others also has a variety of items beyond books.
The Children’s Literature Collection contains about 2,000 volumes, ranging from Indiana authors, illustrated editions, some award-winning titles, and a variety of historical materials such as prominent Indianapolis children’s authors Eth Clifford, Mabel Leigh Hunt, Jean Brown Wagoner, and Guernsey Van Riper.
The Fine Printing Collection began with a substantial gift by G. Harvey Petty. Over the years additional items have been added to this collection, not only of examples of fine printing, but also of works about typography and the history of fine printing. A number of examples of local private printing are included, including those from the Grabhorn Press (originally the Studio Press) and Press of the Indiana Kid.
The Cookbook and Menu Collection was a gift of the family of Mr. Wright Marble, a local collector. The original donation included a number of 17th and 18th century English and Italian works, along with German, some Oriental, French, English and United States books published in the 19th century. The oldest title in the collection was published in 1542. Other locally published titles have been added over time. Another collector, Arthur H. Rumpf, donated a collection of approximately 100 historic menus, including those from railroad dining cars, hotels, and testimonial-recognition dinners. Local menus have been added over the years.
The Library also offers free access to digital versions of valuable, fragile, and hard-to-use originals at http://www.digitalindy.org