Plan your visit
Celebrate Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day with Free Admission to the Indiana Historical Society
Enjoy free admission to the Indiana Historical Society (IHS) on Saturday, September 17 to celebrate Smithsonian magazine Museum Day.
Museum Day is an annual celebration of boundless curiosity hosted by Smithsonian magazine. Participating museums and cultural institutions across the country provide free entry to anyone presenting a Museum Day ticket. The IHS is a Smithsonian Affiliate.
Stop by the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 17, and experience IHS’s exhibits, Stardust Terrace Café by Jonathan Byrd’s and Basile History Market.
Visitors can also celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with craft activities and a Smithsonian poster exhibit, Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964.
For free admission tickets, visit: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/museum-day-2022/indiana-historical-society/tickets/.
Ongoing IHS exhibits include From Indiana with Love: Photos and Stories from Cold War Indiana, documents and photos that portray Indiana’s role during the Cold War. Several documents displayed are the Indianapolis and Marion County evacuation plan pamphlet and antiwar posters. Visitors are able to look at photos that tell the story of the ways Indiana was vitally involved in the Cold War. This exhibit was made possible with support from the Emerson B. and Jane H. Houck Endowment for Hoosier Photography.
Another open exhibit is Documents That Shaped America, featuring a collection of early editions of some of the most important manuscripts in American history from the collection of The Remnant Trust, including a first edition printing (1788) of the U.S. Constitution (one of five known copies), a first edition of the Gettysburg Address, and an early edition of Life & Times of Frederick Douglass (1893). It also features texts that helped build the major foundational pieces of Western democratic philosophy, such as a 1350 edition of the Magna Carta. This exhibit is co-presented by the Ruth Lilly Philanthropic Foundation, John and Carolyn Mutz, and Care Institute Group, Inc. It is supported by Stan and Sandy Hurt and the Pierre F. & Enid Goodrich Foundation, with contributions from Lewis Bakeries and the Nicholas H. Noyes, Jr., Memorial Foundation, Inc.
In addition, there are two exhibits highlighting the life and legacy of Holocaust survivor Eva Kor. Eva Kor from Auschwitz to Indiana tells the remarkable story of Eva Mozes Kor, who survived Auschwitz as a child and the experiments of Dr. Joseph Mengele, and grew up to be one of the most influential Holocaust educators and activists in the world. Dimensions in Testimony is an exhibit brought to IHS in partnership with CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. This groundbreaking project from USC Shoah Foundation enables people to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from pre-recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide — including Eva Kor.
Eva Kor from Auschwitz to Indiana is presented by the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, supported by the Old National Bank Foundation, OneAmerica, Robert & Toni Bader Charitable Foundation, Abrams EyeCare Associates and Samerian Foundation, and is in partnership with WFYI and Ted Green Films.
Dimensions in Testimony is an initiative by USC Shoah Foundation to record and display testimony in a way that will preserve the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future. Collaborating within the project are Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, with technology by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, and concept by Conscience Display. Funding for Dimensions in Testimony was provided in part by Pears Foundation, Louis F. Smith, Melinda Goldrich and Andrea Cayton/Goldrich Family Foundation in honor of Jona Goldrich, Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and Genesis Philanthropy Group (R.A.). Other partners include CANDLES Museum and Education Center.
