By Ryan Lenz, AP
9/18/2003
Archivists were preparing to collect history even as a line of mourners filed past panels of photographs Thursday during a day of remembrance for late Gov. Frank O'Bannon at the Statehouse.
In the weeks ahead, materials gathered for ceremonies to remember O'Bannon, including items such as newspaper clippings and campaign bumper stickers, will be collected to preserve the governor's legacy.
"With the governor, there is an understanding that almost anything associated with his life is going to have historical value," said Dale Ogden, curator of cultural history at the Indiana State Museum. "But it is difficult approaching someone just after a death because you don't want to be seen as an ambulance chaser."
Beyond objects that reflect O'Bannon the man, which include a row of autographed basketballs still lining shelves in the governor's office and the photographs from O'Bannon's life, every state document during O'Bannon's administration will be archived.
While the O'Bannon family will decide what to do with the governor's possessions, archivists and historians say they could go to a number of places, namely museums and universities.
The Indiana Historical Society has started collecting newspaper clippings outlining the week O'Bannon was in the hospital and the state's response to his death last Saturday.
The Indiana State Museum already has a collection from pervious governors, including executive desks and civil war uniforms. The museum also has parts of the deck of the USS Indiana kept by Roger D. Branigin, who was governor in the late 1960s.
"This is a very historic event outside of the fact that he is the governor because the things that are done today will be studied and analyzed," said Jerry Handfield, former Indiana state archivist, as he looked at the governor's portrait on display at the Statehouse. "Future generations will want us to preserve as much as we possible can."
Handfield was the Indiana archivist during O'Bannon's tenure as lieutenant governor. Now the state archivist in Washington, he returned for O'Bannon's memorial.
State museum officials have not yet talked with the O'Bannon family or the governor's office about what they will seek for the permanent collection.
Still, Handfield said it was important to preserve those elements of O'Bannon's time in office, personal and otherwise.
"They need to preserve his record," he said. "Because each generation tries to revise, rewrite or erase history."
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