USI’s Strezewski to present at Archaeology Month celebration at Dubois County Museum

Dr. Michael Strezewski, University of Southern Indiana Professor of Anthropology, will give a presentation on archaeological Hoosier history titled The Dry Goods Store: A Bit of Civilization on Indiana’s Frontier at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, September 13 at the Dubois County Museum as part of an educational event celebrating Archaeology Month.

Strezewski’s presentation will explore the entrepreneurial spirit of the Harmony Society, a German religious utopian community founded by Georg Rapp in the early 1800s. After settling briefly in Pennsylvania, the group moved to the Indiana Territory in 1814, establishing the town of Harmonie, known today as New Harmony. While the Society lived apart from the secular world, they actively engaged in commerce, operating three stores that sold both their own manufactured goods and items imported from afar. With one store in Harmonie and others in Vincennes, Indiana, and Shawneetown, Illinois, the Society became a key supplier in the developing Ohio River Valley.  

Drawing on 14 surviving store inventories and hundreds of archival documents, the presentation will offer rare insights into the goods available to early settlers and the surprising role the Harmony Society played in shaping trade and daily life along the Ohio and Wabash rivers. 

After the presentation, local collector Derrick Haas will be available until noon to share his knowledge of arrowheads, spear points and tools. 

For more information on this event, contact the Dubois County Museum at admin@duboiscountymuseum.org.