Grants Awarded To A Court Film And Indiana State Medical Museum

Medical and law history in Indiana will be documented and preserved, thanks to grants from the Indiana Historical Society.  

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana will receive $25,000 for its documentary film called "Federal Justice in Indiana." The project will feature reenactments of several significant cases in Indiana history. 

“We are focusing on our case Ex parte Milligan, which was heard during the Civil War and actually went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. It dealt with issues relating to whether a civilian could be tried by a military tribunal during a time of war,” says court historian Doria Lynch who says legal history has been overlooked.

“I don’t think some folks see the excitement in legal history, and maybe how it affects them," Lynch says. "But when you take a look at the cases that we are discussing in our documentary, especially the school desegregation case that has such a wide reaching impact at the time and also continuing into today, it’s an important thing to teach students about and to teach the broader public about as well.”

The film will be distributed to public broadcasting stations and Indiana schools. The Historical Society of the U.S. District of Indiana also received two grants –totaling $10,000 from the R.B. Annis Educational Foundation for the project. 

The Indiana Medical History Museum is also receiving a $50,000 grant, which will help the aging building. 

"It’s 120 years old this year and it has a lot of structural issues, but the next big major thing on our list of stuff to do to preserve the building is replacing all three of the building’s skylights," says Rachel Hill Ponko at the Indiana HIstorical Society. "They are single paned glass. They have cracks  in them. They allow condensation and they don’t filter the UV light, so there are a lot of issues with them that put the building and collections at risk."

The grants are funded by the Lilly Endowment.