This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Students at the Jennings County High School in North Vernon, Indiana, worked with the Jennings County Historical Society to produce this short documentary about the area's historic barns.
Jaime Garcia(00:17): Farms are as American as apple pie, emblematic of our agriculture heritage and rural character but around the United States, many older and historic barns are deteriorating or disappearing, threatened by changing farming practices, urban sprawl and the complexities in maintaining these unique structures. The Indiana Barn Foundation.
Louise Malcolm (00:48): I've always loved the barns. I love the gray wood and the big beams and I've always admired the fact that man had to do that manually. They didn't have chainsaws, they didn't have big sawmills that could saw these trees and I also admired the trees because when we settled this country in the 1800s, there were some giant trees and you can look at barns that have been preserved and see the span of a 50, 60, 70 foot beam across the top of an old barn. And if we didn't preserve these barns, that wouldn't be happening. Most trees today don't live that long, or we harvest them long before they reach that size and so to me, preserving barns is a way of respecting both nature and the environment and man's ability to adapt it to his needs.
Jaime Garcia (01:54): Indiana has more barns per square mile than all but five other states. Our county of Jennings, located in southeastern Indiana, provides a good example of the challenges faced by those attempting to preserve these historic structures. This is a race against time and fraught with financial challenges but if you understand the story of Jennings County's historic barns and of the preservation efforts of a few individuals and families here, you can understand the story of barns in America. This awareness may provide us with the connection we need to prioritize the preservation of these vanishing structures for future generations.
Jaime Garcia (02:35): The Indiana Barn Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing grants to rehabilitate Indiana barns was established to unite those who value the legacy of Hoosier farms, who have worked against the odds, often single handedly and with no financial incentive, to maintain and preserve these landmarks as assets to Indiana's larger cultural heritage. In our community, Lou Malcolm, a member of this organization, is leading the charge to gather the stories of Jennings County's historic barns and at the same time, repurposing her family's historic barn.
Asset ID: 2022.08.01
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
