In 1984 the Indiana Association of Historians (IAH), anticipating the forthcoming bicentennials of the Northwest Ordinance and the United States Constitution launched a lecture series “Indiana and the United States Constitution,” which ended in March, 1986. With grant support from the Indiana Committee for the Humanities (ICH), an independent organization working in cooperation with the NEH, the six lectures, presented by historians and practicing attorneys, explored such topics as fugitive slave cases, Ex Parte Milligan, Alfred C. Kinsey’s ·Customs Bureau fight, school busing, and church-state issues in textbook selection. This series will be published in late 1986 or early 1987 by the Indiana Historical Society.
The IAH lecture’ series set the pace for much of the bicentennial activity planned in Indiana for 1986-87, the majority of which is focused on the Northwest Ordinance. Among the many public celebrations under way, or under consideration, from all levels government, by historical groups, the ICH, universities and colleges, and others, are a number of events directed by the Indiana Historical Society.
Most recently, in January, the Society launched an exhibit of its collection of Pennsylvania Packet newspapers. This lot of almost 1,400 Monday through Saturday issues, covering the five years from 1786 through 1790, was purchased in 1985 from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Published by John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole, printers to the Confederation Congress and to the Constitutional Convention, the Packet, from its establishment in 1771 by Dunlap, is highly regarded as a source of information on the social and political milieu of the Revolutionary War generation.
Numbered among the set owned by the Society is one of the first printings of the Northwest Ordinance and what is considered the first extant printing of the United States Constitution. The same type used for the official broadside of the Constitution was used for the newspaper’s edition. The only difference between the text of the broadside and that of the Packet is that the latter reset the Constitution’s preamble in large type for the masthead. All four pages of the newspaper were devoted to the text of the Constitution. Fewer than twenty copies of this Packet issue are known to exist.
The Society’s exhibit entitled “Newsprint and New Beginnings: The Pennsylvania Packet and the Era of the Northwest Ordinance and the United States Constitution, 1786-1787″ is having a two-year showing in the Indiana Statehouse. Each week six consecutive issues corresponding to the day and month in our present calendar are put out for viewing. Rackcards pertaining to the collection are available at the exhibit. Furthermore, each week excerpts from the Packet are being sent for publication or broadcast to numerous newspapers, radio, and television stations throughout Indiana. Historical organizations in other states are invited to contact the Society if they would like to receive these excerpts and distribute them to their state papers.
Additional efforts by the Society to alert the public to and inform it of the significance of the Northwest Ordinance involve a major conference in South Bend, Indiana, in the spring of 1987 and a publication on the Ordinance. The booklet, tentatively entitled “The Northwest Ordinance: A Bicentennial Handbook,” incorporates several scholarly essays relative to the back ground of the document and its importance to the evolution of Indiana from territorial status to statehood. These essays to be written by authorities on the period will be accompanied by an annotated Ordinance text. A selected bibliography of books, articles, and unpublished sources will be included along with an end-pocket containing a facsimile of the Ordinance and a map of the old Northwest. The Society plans to publish the handbook in early 1987.
The activities of the Society respecting the bicentennials correspond nicely with similar programs being arranged in neighboring states. All in all, the evident energetic and creative use of public and private resources by the states set up under the auspices of the Ordinance promises to make 1987 a memorable year in the annals of America’s anniversaries.
For more information about the activities which the Indiana Historical Society has planned for 1987, write the Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio St., Indianapolis, Indiana, 46202; or call 317/232-1882.
Robert M. Taylor Jr. received his PhD in history from Kent State University and currently serves on the staff of the Indiana Historical Society.
