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A visit by nine year old David Wolf launched a career in space. World-famous musician Elton John met Ryan White, a young man infected with HIV, and his life was changed forever. The world’s largest children’s museum has been sharing stories of success and inspiring children and families for 88 years.
Now, you can read more about the transformational experiences that influenced the creation and development of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis through a new online history project like no other. The museum becomes one of the few museums in the country to journey through its history in an interactive and compelling way as it launches an extremely visual online history site.
“The online history project is a first for us. Few museums have taken this important step to document their wonderful histories,” said Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, president and CEO, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. “The museum campus, its exhibits and programs would not have been possible without the passion and dedication of thousands of people who have contributed their time and energy to make it an extraordinary place of family learning. We wanted to capture those memories to share with everyone. An online journey into the past seemed like the perfect way to document our history.”
Navigating The Children’s Museum new online history site is a breeze – enabling visitors to click on what interests them most with direct links to events and intriguing stories that are relevant.
With the click of a mouse, visitors embark on a journey from 1925 to the present to understand what motivated museum leaders to create an institution that became a leader in family-learning. In a vast collection of 120,000 artifacts, visitors learn which objects became iconic and what makes them unique. Witness the evolution of the world’s largest children’s museum and discover how it came to be known as the best.
An easy to navigate timeline illustrates who was instrumental in each phase of the museum’s growth along with photographs, illustrations, and video clips. While other historical efforts contain huge blocks of text, this one guides visitors to easily digestible material and quotes from the people who helped mold the museum into what it is today through the perspective of eight-plus decades.
It doesn’t stop there. History continues to evolve and the museum will update the new online history site to reflect what is happening now so the evolution of the museum is up-to-date and not obsolete.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is a nonprofit institution committed to creating extraordinary learning experiences across the arts, sciences, and humanities that have the power to transform the lives of children and families. For more information about The Children's Museum, visit www.childrensmuseum.org, follow us on Twitter @TCMIndy, Facebook.com/childrensmuseum and YouTube.
