By Mark Ambrogi
It seems fitting that Ellen Rosenthal would lend her knowledge to a book about Conner Prairie just before her retirement as president and CEO.
“It does bring some things full circle,” Rosenthal said. “It really shows the scope of what we’ve done since I’ve been here. I’ve been here 16 years and been running it 12 1/2 years, so it’s a reflection of what we’ve accomplished plus the heritage of the organization.”
Rosenthal teamed up with photographer Thomas Mueller, a retired cardiologist, in producing “Conner Prairie.”
“I think what the photographs capture beautifully is the magic of this place,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal, 63, who retired in December, was instrumental in turning Conner Prairie from a more traditional museum into an interactive history park. Conner Prairie, situated on 850 acres in Fishers, welcomes 360,000 visitors annually.
Mueller has had a passion for photography since he was in his 20s. He trained at the International Center of Photography in New York City and has since displayed his work at several Indiana universities.
Mueller, a 70-year-old north side Indianapolis resident, began photographing on the Conner Prairie property about four years ago. He got the idea while attending a January dinner.
“We were walking toward the Conner house with our lanterns as it was deep into dusk,” Mueller said. “It was a wonderful evening with snow on the ground and I thought ‘this is a great place to photograph.’”
Mueller approached Rosenthal about allowing him to do a photographic project. Rosenthal said they began asking Mueller to take photos of programs and certain areas of the grounds.
“After two years, it started to really present an overview of Conner Prairie,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal said a gift store employee said visitors were always asking for a book about Conner Prairie.
“I would go out and speak to foundations, groups and potential donors and I always wanted to bring them something that gave them a view,” Rosenthal said. “It started to occur to us that Tom’s photos would make a wonderful basis for a book on Conner Prairie. Then it was matter of putting our thoughts together and figuring out really what we wanted it to look like.”
Their first approach was a narrative about Conner Prairie with pictures serving as illustrations.
“As it started to develop, I said, ‘No, no, no, this is a photo book,’” Rosenthal said. “This is a book where photos are the center stage. It is really a photo essay. So let’s structure the book with basic segments, but highlighting the photographs. As that picture started to emerge, Tom and I sat down and co-curated the book. It was really fun to put together.”
Rosenthal said there were things about Conner Prairie even she didn’t learn until putting the book together.
“Almost everything I didn’t know,” Mueller said with a laugh. “Since I was a relative newcomer here I had to work with a lot of people who work here full-time. To a person, they were incredibly helpful taking me to the right places and giving me information about what I was photographing and what they were trying to portray. What I try to do is create a mood with a photograph and create some emotional response. What the people that work here did was give me a basis for what that emotional response might be.”
Rosenthal agreed the staff’s help was crucial.
“Tom and I had our names on the cover, but everyone contributed,” she said.
Rosenthal said at times they would need expert advice on certain subjects, for instance what was considered a heritage breed — traditional livestock breeds raised before industrial agriculture became a mainstream practice.
“I learned a lot about the history about the pictures we happened to pick out,” Rosenthal said. “As you dig into things you have an obligation to try to be as authentic as possible.”
Just in time
The book, which is available for $19.95 in the gift store inside Conner Prairie’s Welcome Center, was released Dec. 12.
“They printed 500 copies and the color was six shades darker,” Rosenthal said. “If you are doing a photo essay, you want the photos to be right. That was two weeks before the book signing so we told the printer we had to get them in time.”
The corrected books arrived the morning of the signing at the Welcome Center.
“So we were biting our fingernails,” Rosenthal said.
For more, visit connerprairie.org.
