On the third floor of the Indiana State Museum, a new interactive exhibit seeks to teach Indianapolis residents more about their own city without passing over the bad.
The museum’s Indy A to Z exhibit tells the stories that define Indianapolis as we know it today through 26 topics ranging from the city’s history, sports and music to notorious people and events.
“We’re trying to get people to fall in love with the city that they live in,” said Brian Mancuso, the Indiana State Museum’s chief officer of engagement.
The city with a lot of “firsts”
Indy A to Z covers a lot of what Indianapolis is famous for and some parts of current events and history that some would rather forget.
At the exhibit, C stands for cheer, which people do for its sports teams and athletes and at yearly events such as Gen Con and the Indianapolis 500.
But people can also learn about inventors who were the first of their kind, such as Madam CJ Walker, who developed specialized hair products for Black women and became the first American woman to be a self-made millionaire. Or Eli Lilly, whose company created the first gel-coated pills and capsules and other medical innovations.
There’s also Indianapolis innovations such as sliced bread and sliced bacon.
Wonder Bread, one of the first commercially sold sliced bread loaves, was made by the Taggart Baking Company downtown. The Kingan & Co. meat packing factory, which operated near where Victory Field is today, was the first company to sell sliced bacon, although Chicago’s Oscar Mayer was the first to officially patent it.
The exhibit lets people tell their own story, with an interactive display that records peoples’ experiences living in the city and a message board for people to talk about the “zillions” of reasons people like living in Indianapolis.
The exhibit pokes fun at Indianapolis’ persistent pothole problem by turning it into a game where people have to send out crews to fix them. The game — like the roads — gets harder as the seasons change and wet weather is introduced.
People can also experience a display with photos of different places around the city and how they look today.
Indiana Avenue, for example, was once the site of famous jazz clubs and other Black-owned businesses from the 1940s through the 1960s, including the Orchid Room, Henri’s and the Famous Door Club, They’ve since been replaced by luxury apartments and parking lots.
“We really want people to be more curious about their city during their daily drive or their walk down to the store, or, while they’re at a park, wondering what’s around them,” Mancuso said.
The exhibit helped Texas transplant Erin Phillips learn more about her adopted city. She moved to Indianapolis nine years ago to start a family, and, now with two kids, she says it’s more important than ever to learn about the city she now calls home.
“I absolutely think it’s super important to understand your roots and where you come from,” Phillips said. “I’m not from here, but my husband is, and I think it’s incredibly important to go to libraries and learn about local history. Being able to see it and experience it makes a difference for my kids.”
Confronting a troubled past
The exhibit, which opened in late February, is also teaching tourists about the city.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student Tiffany Saxinger visited Indianapolis for the first time for this year’s Big 10 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
“It’s cool because it goes over a lot of the different aspects of the history of Indianapolis, like the cultural side and the government side,” she said, “but it’s really cool because it doesn’t shy away from the bad things of the past,” she said.
The racism at the Riverside Amusement Park or the city’s links to other notorious parts of American history, such as cult leaders Jim Jones and Charles Manson, are among the topics the exhibit doesn’t shy away from.
Riverside Amusement Park operated in the Riverside neighborhood on the west side from 1903 until 1970. It had roller coasters, bumper cars and many other fun rides, but for most of its existence the park was open only to white residents except on a few designated days. Its owners only rescinded the policy in the 1960s, when they needed more revenue to keep the park open.
Jim Jones founded the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in the 1950s. It began as a church on 15th Street and New Jersey Street that fought for social change and ended in a mass suicide in South America.
Charles Manson led the Manson Family cult whose members were involved in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. He lived in Indianapolis during some of his teen years.
The exhibit, Saxinger said, helped tap into the full story of what made Indianapolis what it is today and how hard people have worked to right wrongs over the years,
“My ultimate goal is that somebody will come in and have a conversation with someone they don’t know, and that something in the exhibit sparks that connection,” Mancuso said.
How to see Indy A to Z
The Indy A to Z exhibit will be at the Indiana State Museum until June 28. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information on admission prices and available discounts, check out the museum’s website.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
