Ada, Okla. — East Central University professors Sarah Engel and Susan Ingram will be leading a presentation hosted by the Ada Public Library, Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 5:30 p.m.
Ada Rewind: The War Years – Ada’s Experience of World War II will be a public talk examining how World War II shaped life in Ada and surrounding communities.
Engel and Ingram’s ongoing multimedia research project, Ada Rewind • Pause • Fast Forward, documents more than a century of local change through re-photography, mapping, and community history.
This talk will highlight the wartime experiences of Ada’s Jewish community, shifts in local commerce, the evolving roles of women on the home front, and the lives of families with loved ones serving overseas. Drawing from archival materials, historical imagery, and firsthand accounts, Engel and Ingram offer a rich and accessible perspective on how global events resonated throughout Pontotoc County.
Ada Rewind • Pause • Fast Forward is a not-for-profit, living digital history initiative designed to preserve and publicly share an interactive visual record of Ada's past and present. Ingram, an Ada native, teaches media writing, social media, advertising, and public relations, while Engel teaches photography, related software, and art history. Their shared passion for local history and media arts forms the foundation of this ongoing project. Ingram and Engel seek community collaboration in locating and granting publication rights to historic photographs and media of significance to our community so that our history can be explored and shared by all. If interested in sharing your photos, stories, or other media such as films, news clippings, etc., please contact by email singram@ecok.edu and sengel@ecok.edu.
This talk is presented in conjunction with the national traveling exhibition Americans and the Holocaust on loan from the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and displayed at the Ada Public Library from December 4, 2025, through January 8, 2026. This exhibition is possible through the support of the Unite States Holocaust Museum and the American Library Association.
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