The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
World's largest children's museum, founded in 1925 in Indianapolis.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum, located at 3000 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1925 by Mary Stewart Carey, it is the fourth-oldest such institution in the world and focuses on family learning through interactive exhibits.
Quick Facts
- Established
- 1925
- Location
- 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46208-4716, U.S.
- Visitors
- 1.3 million (2019)
- President
- Jennifer Pace Robinson
Facts from the source article.
History
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis was founded in 1925 by Mary Stewart Carey, a wealthy civic patron who owned the Stewart-Carey Glass Company. Inspired by a 1924 visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, she campaigned to start a children's museum in Indianapolis with the help of local civic leaders and the Progressive Teacher's Association. The museum opened in the carriage house of The Propylaeum, a local civic club, with a board of trustees established and Carey elected its first president. Early exhibits were created and donated by school children. After two moves, Carey located the museum in her own mansion on Meridian Street in 1926. The first curator, Arthur Carr, was hired that year and arranged Carey's specimens into exhibits, including marine, Japanese, pioneer, archeology, and nature displays. By the 1940s, a larger staff was hired, and Carr became director after Carey's death in 1938. The museum began guided tours for school children, organized traveling exhibits, and hosted fundraising events. Early members received a Seahorse pin. In 1942, Carr retired and Grace Golden became director. Golden secured grants from the Indianapolis Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and members of the Lilly family, as well as corporate sponsorships, allowing the museum to purchase its own building on North Meridian Street. She diversified exhibits through partnerships with other museums, including a loan of Native American artifacts in 1947 and a gallery of dinosaur skeletons in 1949. The mummy Wenuhotep was given on permanent loan from the University of Chicago in 1959, a nineteenth-century log cabin was donated in 1961, and the Hall of Man was added in 1962. Golden also established a Junior Docent program, two weekly television shows, and interpretive activities.
Operations
In 2008, the institution had revenue of $26.37 million and expenses of $26.369 million, with over half its income supplied by the museum's endowment. The facility had more than one million visitors in 2008, with field trips from 775 schools bringing over 83,000 students. In 2010, the museum had 400 part and full-time employees, and 1,500 individuals contribute over 65,000 hours of volunteer work annually. The collection of over 130,000 artifacts is divided into Arts & Humanities and Natural Science. Significant emphasis is placed on research and development, with field experts consulted regularly. The museum employs many experts who are leaders in their fields. Child and Parents magazine have both ranked it the best children's museum in the United States, and it is considered the gold standard of museums for children. The New York Times cited it as an example of a cultural institution ensuring awareness of accommodating visitors with sensory issues from the start of exhibition design. The museum employed a Wikipedian in Residence in August 2011 and has QRpedia codes posted in the All Aboard! and Carousel Wishes and Dreams exhibits.
Exhibits
The main stairwell is a giant spiral ramp allowing access to all five levels by strollers, wheelchairs, and walkers. In 2006, glass artist Dale Chihuly installed a four-story glass sculpture called Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling in the central atrium, accompanied by an exhibit of his glass blowing methods. The National Geographic: Treasures of the Earth exhibit on the Lower Level, opened June 11, 2011, includes ancient Egyptian artifacts in a replica of the tomb of Seti I, a simulated archeological dig with artifacts about Ying Zheng, the first Emperor of China, and underwater archaeology from a Dominican Republic shipwreck of Captain Kidd with cannons, plus a working lab. The Beyond Spaceship Earth gallery, opened in 2016, covers technology and daily life of NASA's space stations and features an Indiana Astronaut Wall of Fame. The All Aboard! Gallery contains an 11,000 lb steam engine designed by Reuben Wells in 1868, attached to a Pennsylvania Railroad tool car; this exhibit is closed for renovations and set to reopen in fall 2026. The lower level also hosts the Lilly Theater. On the main floor, the Welcome Center has adult and juvenile Brachiosaur sculptures climbing into the front, created by Gary Staab and painted by Brian Cooley. Outside is the Seven Wonders of the World garden, a green rain garden, parking garage, and oversize parking lot. The ground level features North America's largest water clock, created by French physicist and artist Bernard Gitton, along with the toy store, food court, volunteer center, concierge desk, and birthday party rooms. The museum contains a 3,000 sq ft branch of the Indianapolis Public Library called the InfoZone, moved to the second floor outside the skywalk during the 2009 expansion.
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