Alvin W. Holmes Collection on Covered Bridges

Alvin W. Holmes was born in Logansport, Indiana in 1901. He graduated from Logansport High School in 1919, and then attended Purdue University, where he obtained a B.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1923. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Lambda Upsilon, national honorary organizations in engineering and chemistry. Upon graduation he married Mary Schaen, also of Logansport.

Mr. Holmes came to Muncie, Indiana, in 1924 to join Indiana Steel and Wire Company. He remained with that firm for 42 years until his retirement in 1966 as Director of Research and Engineering and Director of Patents. During his career, Mr. Holmes wrote several U.S. and British patents and was a member of the American Society for Metals, British Iron and Steel Institute, American Chemical Society, and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. After retiring, he served as consultant to Indiana Steel and Wire Co. and to General Cable Corp. on uses of steel wire for electric power transmission and for the telephone industry.

Mr. Holmes actively pursued several hobbies, one of which was building his covered bridge collection. He gathered printed information and used his engineering background to measure, diagram, record and photograph structural details of dozens of covered bridges in Indiana and other states. He combined his interest in travel and in photography to document as many bridges as possible before they disappeared. Mr. Holmes died in 1988.