Blog post by Randi Richardson
City directories are wonderful sources of information related to who lived where and when. Both the Monroe County History Center and the Monroe County Public Library have large collections of Bloomington City Directories. A few of the early ones are among the “hidden gems” at the Indiana Memory Digital Collections website.
If you or someone you love graduated from Bloomington High School 1908-1958, you might be happy to know that most of the yearbooks between those dates are available from the Indiana Memory Digital Collections from the Indiana State Library. The Collections are relevant to a number of people, places and events throughout the state and feature two collections for Monroe County: Monroe County at War and at Home; and Monroe County Community Collections.
The two Monroe County collections include, in addition to the yearbooks noted above, a number of Bloomington City Directories (1909-10; 1916-17; 1920, 21 and 22; 1922-23; 1925-26; 1927-28; 1931-32; 1934-35 and 1957); Monroe County Commissioners’ Book 1 and 2; a large number of early Bloomington photographs and more.
Although a search query box is provided, it has not worked well for me. Instead, scroll through the items on the left titled “Add or remove other collections to your search.”