L. S. Ayres and Company holds a special place in the hearts of many Hoosiers. The downtown Indianapolis department store served as a centerpiece for more than a hundred years, adding a century's worth of stories to the city's history.

The company dated to 1844, when Horace Fletcher, a cousin of Indianapolis pioneer Calvin Fletcher, founded a dry goods business along Washington Street in the growing city's downtown business district. By 1871 the store--now known as the Trade Palace--was owned by N. R. Smith. Suppliers to the business asked Lyman Ayres to help improve the store's finances, and he joined the company as senior partner and New York resident buyer. The following year he purchased a controlling interest in the store, which became known as N. R. Smith and Ayres.

In 1874 Ayres moved to Indianapolis and changed the store's name to L. S. Ayres and Company. Like his previous partner, Smith, Ayres was considered a progressive employer and gained a reputation for his fairness and generosity toward his employees. Over the next century, the store became known for the quality of its customer service, and how well it treated its employees.

The Indiana Historical Society's exhibition, You Are There: That Ayres Look, addresses not only the history of the store and its lasting legacy, but also the importance of its people. Throughout the process of developing the exhibition, IHS staff worked in close conjunction with Kenneth L. Turchi, author of the 2012 IHS Press publication L. S. Ayres & Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America, to uncover many of the store's known and unknown stories. Many of the people featured in the exhibition could have had exhibitions all of their own. They led fascinating lives, often coming to the store for different reasons to do different jobs and going on to different career paths after their time at Ayres. However, high regard for their time at the store was a theme that appeared in all of their narratives.

Most You Are There exhibitions presented at the Society have covered time periods much too early to allow for character portrayal of someone still living. Ayres's history is recent enough that the IHS was able to portray several people in the exhibition space that are still alive. One such individual is Betty Swain, whose history with the store speaks to the possibilities of rising up the ranks of store leadership when one shows talent and initiative. Born in 1922, Swain moved to Indianapolis with her small children after divorcing her husband, a Portland, Indiana, physician. Her extended family lived in Indianapolis, so it made sense to move to the city. Upon arriving, she needed income, and in 1947 began her time at Ayres.

Swain took a sales job at Ayres in the lingerie department. Her mother had made clothes for the family, allowing Swain to learn about clothing starting at a young age. She was able to sew by the time she was four years old. Swain designed and...