IU in Wartime: Military and Homefront

Blogging Hoosier History is the blog of Indiana University Archives. The blog includes posts highlighting the people, stories, and materials that make up the collections of University Archives.

From 2016 through 2020, numerous student interns from the Office of the Bicentennial undertook the task of digging into the history of Indiana University and writing about unknown people, places, and events.

The advent of World War II significantly altered the lives of Americans across the country. Unable to avoid the conflicts befalling Europe and Asia, the nation was now a key partner in defeating the Axis powers. Indiana University and the surrounding Bloomington community were not immune to the effects of global conflict brought by the war. Student lives changed as academic years were extended to three semesters to provide maximum education in a minimum time. To provide war weary civilians a break from the stresses of conflict, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared baseball essential to preserving morale on the home front. Wartime travel restrictions forced teams to curtail their spring training trips to warmer climates and practice closer to home. As a result, nine professional teams trained in Indiana from 1943 to 1945, with the major league Cincinnati Reds and minor league Indianapolis Indians both training on I.U.'s campus. The impact of World War II on professional baseball has been well documented, with little emphasis on the collegiate level. Using an assortment of materials from Indiana University Archives, including photographs, Arbutus yearbooks, files from Herman B Wells' presidential collection, and manager's books containing newspaper clippings and box scores, this exhibit aims to detail an aspect of the war's impact on I.U.'s campus.

What was it like to be a student at IU shortly before, during and immediately after World War II? In this exhibit, we attempt by means of short narratives and photographic images to partially answer this question. The exhibit is divided into 4 sections: Preparing for the War, Reactions to Pearl Harbor, IU During the War Years, and Post War IU. In the course of the narrative, we address the following questions about the impact of WWII on Indiana University: What changes occurred in the curriculum? Was there a strong military presence on campus before and after the war? How did IU enrollment change during the war years, and what impact did those changes have on student life? How did IU respond to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and to the declaration of war by the United States? How did civilian IU faculty and students contribute to the war effort? What was the impact of the G-I Bill on IU enrollment? Where did IU house all these new students after the war? After reviewing the exhibit we hope you will have a better understanding of the tremendous impact WWII had on IU, and of how the University responded to the challenges associated with educating its students and, at the same time, with preparing them to support the war effort.