TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Indiana State University is celebrating its Founder’s Day by inviting an associate professor who recently authored a book about ISU history to speak.

The speaking event was part of ISU’s Founder’s Day Celebration. ISU started as “Indiana State Normal School” on Jan. 6, 1870.

Associate professor of history Dr. Dan Clark recently published a book about the topic. It’s titled A History of Indiana State: From Normal School to Teachers College, 1895-1933. Clark says the school played a big role in education all around the state of Indiana.

“That legacy goes far beyond just training teachers. It was really training an educational elite that would go out and build up the educational infrastructure, as I say it, of the state, the human capital, the building up of Hoosier school systems, training the teachers and being administrators,” Clark said.

Clark is currently working on a second book in what will be a two-volume series about ISU’s history.