Hohenberger was born in Ohio in 1876 and orphaned at five years of age. He spent his boyhood as a printing apprentice and later worked several years on newspapers in Dayton, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and finally for the Indianapolis Star. Composing rooms and newspapers could not hold his attention. In 1917 he left Indianapolis to start a small photography business in Nashville, Indiana, concentrating on the subject matter of Brown County. The next forty-seven years were spent recording the life, customs, and scenes of the hills of Brown County, of other areas of Indiana, of Kentucky, of South Carolina, and of Mexico. From 1923 to 1954 he wrote a column for the Indianapolis Star entitled "Down in the Hills O' Brown County." The articles were frequently illustrated with his photographs. Hohenberger, who died in November 1963, willed his collection to the Indiana University Foundation. In 1998 the Foundation transferred ownership of the collection to the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Of particular interest may be an account of a visit to a whiskey still by Hohenberger and a more detailed description for an article by Webb Waldron on the same subject. Stories about Brown County and its inhabitants add color to the collection.

The Hohenberger images initially chosen for this web site, were selected by Lilly Library staff from the Indiana University Press publications of Frank M. Hohenberger's Indiana Photographs edited by Cecil K. Byrd, and If You Don't Outdie Me: the Legacy of Brown County by Dillon Bustin. Other selections where made based on prints frequently requested, and those representative of his work.

The entire collection is located at the Lilly Library. For more information about this collection and any related materials contact the Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 -- Telephone: (812) 855-2452.