The Indiana State Museum

Written by Julie Greiner

When entering the Indiana State Museum you come into the rotunda. A magnificent rotunda rising some 85 feet above the lobby, capped by a stained glass skylight of the Tiffany Era. The Foucault Pendulum, hangs from the skylight down to within inches of the floor, rotating and demonstrating the earth's rotation. The museum, located downtown and easily accessible, is considered one of the finest examples of early 20th century architecture and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Indiana Policitcal Ike, Capehart and Bayh Political Buttons

Policitcal Ike, Capehart and Bayh Political Buttons

State Museum which was formerly housed in the basement of the Indiana Statehouse was moved to its current location in the old Indianapolis City Hall building at 202 N. Alabama Street, Indianapolis in 1967. The museum presently consists of some 80,000 square feet of collections and exhibits.

Northern Indiana Exhibits

The Crossroads of America exhibit consists of a rich collection of artifacts on Indiana's growing industrial economy during the state's Golden Age (1880-1920) and includes a Studebaker farm wagon and items on the early steel industry in Gary. The Mastodont Bog includes a re-created mastadont in a simulated LaPorte County bog. Pharmaceutical exhibit showcases three major companies in the early 1920's - Miles Laboratory in Elkhart, Mead Johnson in Evansville and Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis. The Hoosier Way exhibit settles around the pioneers settling in the state, and the era of the Civil War.

Central Indiana Exhibits

A living-history exhibit of the lives of Indianapolis' black community in 1870 New Projected Museum Building

is featured. A Woodland Indiana artifact exhibit from 1,000 to 2,000 years ago depicts a model of a village built by mound-builders of the Anderson area.

Southern Indiana

A Walk Through Time exhibit appears to be of a southern Indiana limestone quarry from the time of when Indiana was under the ocean. There is a prehistoric Indian artifact exhibit showing items from 500 to 1,000 years ago. Furniture Manufacturing in Indiana is traced through its development and shows the impact of such manufacturing in southern Indiana.

The New Indiana State Museum under Construction

The new state-of-the-art facility with triple the size of the current exhibits and program areas is expected to open in 2002. The new $105 million museum will house Indiana State Museum Original Building

more than 400,000 artifacts. There will be three floors of exhibits, an interactive learning center and a re-creation of the downtown Indianapolis L.S. Ayres Tea Room as a 70-seat restaurant. This new facility is more than a museum about Indiana, it is a museum made out of Indiana. Most of the materials used in building the 230,000 square foot structure are from Indiana. The basic building is constructed of Indiana limestone. Indiana limestone will be used in the structure as building material and as carved art. There will be 92 sculptures of Indiana limestone featured in the 92 County Walk exhibit. For more information on exhibits and tours call: 317-232-1637.