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English

Though the English were among the earliest immigrants to arrive in Indianapolis, they never formed a very large proportion of the city’s population. Despite their limited numbers, however, the English… Read More »English

Festivals

Like most large cities, Indianapolis has a sizeable number of annual festivals focused on the arts and culture, food, sports, religion, ethnic heritage, and seasonal events and celebrations. These festivals… Read More »Festivals

Filipinos

Although Filipinos were considered U.S. nationals following the annexation of the Philippine Islands after the Spanish-Amerian War of 1898, the Philippines Independance Act of 1934 defined Filipinos as aliens for… Read More »Filipinos

Freethought

Freethought aims to approach all matters objectively and rationally, although this definition oversimplifies. Principally antireligious, thus its atheistic and humanistic cast, the movement encompasses a wide range of thinkers and… Read More »Freethought

Germans

People with ancestral ties to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and other German-speaking provinces of central and eastern Europe constitute the largest white ethnic group in Indianapolis and have since… Read More »Germans

Germans In Politics

Although germans had been in Indianapolis since at least the 1840s, their political influence did not become significant until the mid-1850s. Many of the early immigrants were liberals who left… Read More »Germans In Politics

Hinduism

Growing quietly in Indianapolis since the 1960s, Hinduism became a far more visible religion in Indianapolis in the first decades of the 21st century through the establishment of two temples… Read More »Hinduism

Irish in Politics

Politics enabled the Irish and their descendants to rise to positions of prominence in Indianapolis as mayors, police chiefs, judges, city councilmen, and party officials. Denied political freedom in their… Read More »Irish in Politics

Japanese

Census data from 1880 onward reveals the small number of Japanese in Indiana, without a true Japanese-American community either in the state or the capital on the eve of World… Read More »Japanese

Language Immersion Programs

After several attempts to establish schools for German American children, a group of prominent, non-sectarian, liberal German Americans in Indianapolis founded the German-English School Society (Deutsch-Englischer Schulverein) in 1859. The… Read More »Language Immersion Programs

A product of the Indianapolis Bicentennial effort (2020–21), the digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis integrates and accesses the explosion and fragmentation of knowledge created both as born-digital information and as a large new digital archive.

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