Program Explores Women's Roles, Lifestyles from Victorian Era through Early 20th Century Progressive Era

Before Middletown: Using Historical Archaeology to View Victorian Muncie is a program scheduled for Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Bracken Library’s Forum Room, BL-225.

The free program is open to the public and is being sponsored by the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library and by the Center for Middletown Studies.

Professor Christina L. Blanch, Ball State’s Department of Anthropology, will discuss the Victorian Period’s rapid social change, growing industrialization, and the transformation of gender roles that were taking place in Muncie, Indiana and throughout the country.

She will explore a brief history of Muncie, Indiana, the history of the Moore-Youse home and occupants, and the influence of the Victorian period on gender roles in the 19th century. In her archaeological research at the Moore-Youse house, Professor Blanch examines changes in women’s roles from the Victorian period through the early 20th century progressive era. This research will contribute toward a more complete view of the history and culture of the Victorian period in Indiana and the Midwestern United States.

For more information or to join the Friends, contact John B. Straw, Executive Secretary for the Friends and the Alexander M. Bracken Library and Ball State University Libraries’ Director for Archives and Special Collections Research Center, JStraw@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.