The Indiana Historical Bureau's own blog post on the 1876 train ride carries no named author and no dated edition, so the atlas records neither; it is a live agency web feature rather than a fixed, dated publication, and it does not fit the site's other source-type categories cleanly, so none is forced onto it. Its strength is that it draws on Lew Wallace's own autobiography for its account of the September 19, 1876 train conversation with the agnostic orator Robert Ingersoll, the exchange the novelist himself credited with prompting him to write Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Its limit is that it is a state historical agency's own archival account rather than an independent, peer reviewed biography, one step below that standard though grounded in the novelist's own record.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
The Indiana Historical Bureau's own blog post on the 1876 train ride, the middle tier reflecting a state historical agency's own archival account grounded in Lew Wallace's own autobiography, one step below independent peer reviewed biography though not a self-interested party to the events it describes. It carries no named author and no dated edition, a live agency web feature rather than a fixed, dated publication. NotesA state historical agency's own account, drawing on Lew Wallace's autobiography, of the September 19, 1876 train conversation with agnostic orator Robert Ingersoll that the novelist himself credited with prompting him to write Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. An institutional archival source rather than an independent scholarly study, one step below a peer-reviewed biography.
Citation
AuthorJustin Clark
PublisherIndiana Historical Bureau, Indiana State Library
Publication Year2016
URLhttps://blog.history.in.gov/robert-ingersoll-and-lew-wallaces-legendary-train-ride/
Source Typemagazine feature
Claims Backed By This Source (11 claims)
This source backs 11 claims across the atlas. As facts: 9 well-attested. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Articles, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Screen Works, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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