Centennial Farms of Indiana; by M. Teresa Baer, Kathleen M. Breen, Judith Q. McMullen and Ruth Dorrel; 122 pp; 12x9; Published: 2003; paperback, ISBN: 0978071951649; ill. Index; Item # IHS020

This generously illustrated book celebrates the golden era of family farming in Indiana while tracing the history of Hoosier farmers—from Native Americans to agribusiness executives. The centerpiece of this book is an award program sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society (IHS) and the Indiana Historical Bureau (IHB) from 1947 to 1951. In partnership with Purdue University's School of Agriculture and the state's county agricultural agents, the IHS and the IHB certified more than 1,600 farms that had been owned by the same family for one hundred years or more.

Woven throughout the book are both stories about the Centennial Farms from the families who owned them, as well as historic photographs of Hoosier farms. As one Centennial Farm applicant states, "There is considerable sentiment, and much history connected with the whole thing."