If you’re a Hoosier born and bred (like me), you owe yourself a trip to the Indiana State Museum to see the new exhibit “200 Objects-A Bicentennial Celebration.” The exhibit opened on April 30, 2016, which worked for me as it was the 151st anniversary of the Lincoln funeral train passing through Indiana. It runs through January 29, 2017 but if I were you, I’d go sooner than later because it is the kind of thing you might want to see more than once.
The ISM has carefully collected nearly 140 items from the museum’s collection along with another 60-plus artifacts borrowed from fellow museums, libraries and private collectors to form a perfect history of our state told through objects. These 200 items, all of which are rare and many priceless, represent significant moments, events and people from Indiana’s past and present. According to Dale Ogden, chief curator of of history and culture, “The experience will showcase the breadth and depth of Indiana’s history including its contributions to the nation and the world, as well as present our state’s amazing natural history.”
Thanks to the careful considerate rumination of the ISM, every object on display draws the visitor into a virtual dioramic tapestry that tells the story of our great state. Viewing a partial list of exhibition contributors alone should be enough to pique one’s interest: Butler, Indiana, Purdue and Notre Dame universities; Rolls Royce, Cummins Engine, the Cranbrook Institute, U.S, National Archives, Children’s Museum, and the Indiana Historical Society. There is something for everyone, regardless of your field of interest, in this once-in-a-generation collection of relics.
The exhibition begins with an 1887 Circus Band Shell Wagon whose bright red colors and shiny gold hand-carved accents beckon visitors to step inside the tent and see the show. You’ll swear you can hear the call of the calliope and the smell of sawdust before you even enter the hall. That theme continues with each and every item that catches the eye. No matter what generation, no matter what historical era, every object evokes a distinct, sometimes intensely personal, image or memory in the visitors mind.
Once inside, our state’s flag is designed in real-life form; a buffalo and broad-axe frame the 1795 Treaty of Greenville signed a year after the Native American loss at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, thus ending the Northwest Indian War and our first step towards statehood. General “Mad Anthony” Wayne, the victorious leader at Fallen Timbers, is represented by his actual camp bed. Other personalities from those immediate pre-statehood days were there too: William Henry Harrison, William Clark, and Meriwether Lewis, as are those of the vanquished: Wyandot Chiefs Tarhe and Leatherlips, Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and Miami Chief Little Turtle. The original Indiana Statehood commission completes this big bang of Indiana statehood.
From there on, visitors are treated to more themed rooms, perhaps the most impressive of which is titled, “Bad to the bone.” This room features objects associated with Hoosiers whose wild streak elevated them to fame or infamy. Eyes dart back and forth from a 1934 John Dillinger wanted poster to Amelia Earhart’s flight jacket to the 13,500 year old skeleton of a giant short-faced bear who roamed the earth during the Pleistocene epoch. The display also includes the ornate, hand-carved walking stick owned by Socialist Party Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs whose political skills were so astute that he received nearly 1 million votes in the 1920 election despite the fact he was serving time in federal prison for treason.
Another room, titled “A Matter of Life and Death,” contains stark and varied artifacts like the machine gun bearing the name of its Hoosier inventor Richard J. Gatling alongside the skeletal remains of a mountain lion, a species that went extinct in 1851. There is a life jacket from the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, sunk in shark infested waters by a Japanese torpedo boat at the close of World War II. A Hoosier Whooping crane, extinct since 1897, stands nearby.
But the real eye-catcher here is an object whose deadly intentions are made quite clear at first glance. It is the electric chair from the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City. The chair was made by inmates using wood salvaged from the prison’s original gallows. The electric chair was the state’s chosen method of execution from 1913 to 1995. In all, 17 men were put to death in this chair. By now you’re hooked.
The exhibit features objects that bring myths to life like Johnny Appleseed’s water flask from around 1840 — and you thought that was just a fairy tale. Mercury astronaut (and the second American in space) Gus Grissom is there. You can almost see him materialize like in a sparkly Star Trek transporter scene as you gaze upon his U.S. Air Force uniform. There is the jacket given to Hoosier AIDS hero Ryan White in the eighties by Sir Elton John.
The exhibit includes more items illustrating Indiana’s love affair with sports, including Bobby Plump’s letterman’s jacket from Milan high school, the team that inspired the movie Hoosiers. Mario Andretti’s racing suit is displayed near the original camera from WFBM-TV that broadcast the 1949 Indy 500 live, a first for this race-crazy state. Tamika Catching’s Indiana Fever jersey is on display as is Hoosier Native Tommy John’s jersey. Notre Dame’s football coach Knute Rockne’s coaching sweatshirt, complete with a fist sized repair patch on the belly, speaks volumes to any fan of the Fighting Irish. The Indiana / Purdue Oaken Bucket football trophy is on display. Larry Bird’s 1979 College Player of the Year award is here too.
One of the more emotional displays is devoted to the dark days of misguided racial hatred in Indiana. An ominous looking bright red satin KKK robe from 1979 stands next to a shocking photo of the tragic lynching in Marion on the town square in August of 1930. The gut-wrenching image of two young black men hanging from the trees will bring tears to visitor’s eyes as the mournful 1939 Billie Holiday song “Strange Fruit” plays softly in the background. The song was an anti-lynching ballad inspired by the photo.
Other displays leaning towards the dark side of Indiana history include a hand-written letter from Belle Gunness, America’s first female serial killer who did her dirty work in LaPorte. Built like a linebacker standing 6 foot tall and weighing over 200 pounds, the Norwegian-American lonely hearts spinster killed between 25 and 40 people over several decades. Nearby is a creepy-looking rusted metal license plate from Jim Jones Indianapolis People’s Temple at 15th and New Jersey in the city. Years after it was obsolete, Reverend Jones led 909 people to their death in the jungles of Guyana.
Nearby is an original Indiana slave manifest from the generation after statehood when the Hoosier state had as many as 190 slaves registered within her borders. The sad exhibit is brought whole and somehow pacified by an original hand-signed copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation resting just feet away. Yet another profiling injustice, this time against all races, is touched upon with a copy of the 1907 Indiana House Bill 364, a.k.a. the Indiana Eugenics Law, designed to weed out the unfit and infirm of our native state.
Indiana manufacturing is represented by a top-of-the-line Golden Rose Casket from Batesville, Tell City chairs still in use at the White House today and a jar of crushed Indiana limestone once displayed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Loyal readers of this column might connect this relic to America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes, who committed one of his last murders right here in Irvington. Also on display are an oversized counter display capsule of Prozac from Eli Lilly and the iconic glass bottle for Coca-Cola developed in Terre Haute.
A personal highlight is Indiana’s moon rock / lunar sample displayed with an Apollo flown state flag. An original Raggedy Ann doll is on display as is a uniform from the All American Girl’s professional baseball league that inspired the movie A League of Their Own filmed right here in Indiana. This, along with a heavily sequined Halston dress, were personal highlights for my wife and photographer Rhonda.
The entertainment industry has many connections to the Hoosier state and they are well represented here by artifacts, including a rare first edition copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, bluesman Wes Montgomery’s 1969 Grammy award, and a stage jacket from Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp. Cole Porter’s shiny gold sock garter personally engraved “You’re the top” and James Dean’s leather jacket are must-see items. Your trip is not complete until you gaze upon Hoosier Chuck Taylor’s personal pair of Chuck Taylor canvas shoes.
I asked curator Dale Ogden if there were any items desired, but not included, in the exhibit. “We wanted something to represent Tecumseh but were unable to find anything,” said Ogden. “We are deficient in Native American objects. They are hard to find.” Ogden explained that it is a double-edged sword in that the museum is often asked why the Native American tribes are not better represented and his stock response is, “If we don’t have the objects, we can’t tell the story.”
One iconic item on display is a rather understated stage jacket worn by Michael Jackson. Ogden and I spoke a while ago on this subject, in particular the Michael Jackson memorabilia auction held in Los Angeles a few years ago. The auction, which grossed $3.5 million, was detailed in a past column. Dale explained the museum’s attempt to win some of the lots, “I was bidding via a live feed from the Internet. We were hoping to get a few of the pieces for display at the museum since Jackson is a former Hoosier.” Dale continued, “I could only see the backs of the bidders and the podium. Every time I placed a bid, and some of those bids were substantial in the $65, 000 to $70,000 range, I was immediately outbid. Not just outbid, but pretty much blown out of the water. To make matters worse, these overbids were followed by a chorus of laughter from the crowd. it was only later that I found out that I was bidding against Lady Gaga. Apparently, she bought the entire collection.” Proof positive that just when you think you’ve seen everything . . .
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest book is “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View.” Contact directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
