Hitting the ground running

by Bruce Williams, Director of Multicultural Audiences

Okay, so this is my first blog as a new employee at the Indiana State Museum. This is such a perfect job for me that I am pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. But if I were, I’d ask that you not wake me. As Director of Multicultural Audiences I get to do what I enjoy doing most — being creative, developing multicultural programs and building audiences.

Since joining the staff a few months ago, I have taken on the “BIG” task of planning REPRESENT Family Day, an exciting full-day event done in conjunction with Black History Month. The event is a public program of the museum’s new exhibit REPRESENT. You’ll see lots of cool stuff in this collection by Hoosier African-American artists, especially Dark Fantasy by emerging artist Walter Lobyn Hamilton. This is a large work of art featuring a woman made from cracked vinyl records. There are 40 pieces in the show you do not want to miss seeing.

So if you are thinking that downtown Indianapolis will be deserted with nothing to do one week following Super Bowl XVLI, don’t kid yourself. We will be rocking at the Indiana State Museum to the gospel sounds of national recording artists Napoleon Williams and True Friends True Praise. Krash Krew will have everyone on their feet dancing and hip hop verbal artists Counter Culture will inspire us with contemporary stories of struggle and courage. This is definitely not the event to pass over.

So between times, I need you to pull out your iPhone and mark this date “busy!”  See ya Feb. 11!

Becky Skillman visits Amazing Maize!

by guest blogger Becky Skillman, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana

Do you have the strength it takes to pull someone out of a silo of corn? While visiting the Amazing Maize exhibit recently, my staff and I took the challenge to see if we had the muscle it takes to save someone if they were to fall into a silo full of corn. It is not as easy as you think – try it out at the Indiana State Museum.  

I was glad to have the opportunity to tour the new exhibit which explores the science, history and culture of corn. Agriculture in Indiana contributes $26 billion annually to our state’s economy. Corn is a big player in Indiana – we are the fifth largest producer of corn in the U.S.

Indiana corn is shipped all across the country and the world. During one of my trade missions to China in 2010, a deal was struck to supply 300 Chinese movie theaters with Indiana’s own Weaver Popcorn. You never know where you’ll find Indiana’s corn products – from snacks to fabrics to adhesives. 

That’s why I enjoyed the Amazing Maize exhibit – it explains that corn is not only a food, but a fiber used in clothes as well as fuel in our vehicles. Every year 430 million bushels of corn are used to produce more than 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol in Indiana alone. Indiana ethanol contributes $2 billion to our economy.

The possibilities for Indiana corn seem endless – the crop really is amazing. Find out more about how corn plays a critical role in our everyday lives by checking out the Amazing Maize at the Indiana State Museum.

Becky Skillman is serving her second term as the 49^th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana.  She manages five state agencies, including the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the Office of Tourism Development. To find out more about the work of Lt. Governor Skillman, visit www.lg.in.gov.

Mr. Irsay pays a visit

by Dale Ogden, Senior Curator of Cultural History

You may recall from a previous blog post that the Indiana State Museum will host Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s NFL Owner’s Party during the week of Super Bowl XLVI in Indy in January. We’re also producing the exhibition, Chaos is a Friend of Mine: Cultural Icons from the Jim Irsay Collection, which will allow us to continue the Super Bowl-related festivities through early May. Famous rock guitars, Colts championship memorabilia, historic documents, and other pop culture artifacts from Mr. Irsay’s collection will be featured in this exhibit.

Jim Irsay rocks out on Jerry Garcia's "Tiger" guitar during a visit to the Indiana State Museum.

Whether he’s jamming with Stephen Stills, accompanying the Colts to Miami, indulging his OCD Twitter addiction, or engaging in any one of his other seemingly limitless pursuits, Jim Irsay can be a hard man to pin down in any one place at any one time. So we were pleased when he agreed to come to the museum and sit with a couple of local journalists to talk about the upcoming exhibition (watch Ray Cortopassi’s Fox59 story!).

Many great actors think they’d make a great rock god. Some museum curators believe they’d make great novelists. A wealthy industrialist may imagine himself as a great poet. One thing for sure, as a classically trained guitarist, Jim Irsay knows his way around an axe. So, of course, the reporters wanted him to break out a couple of random instruments and hit a few hot licks. So while our registrar Kara Vetter and I stood around fidgeting and trembling in our white cotton museum gloves, Mr. Irsay banged out a few bars on Elvis Presley’s ’75 Martin. Not content with acoustic stylings, the press goaded him into plugging in Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia’s legendary “Tiger,” one of the most beautiful guitars that’s ever been hand-crafted.

Jim Irsay and Fox59's Ray Cortopassi look at a copy of the first issue of Playboy featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover.

When, at long last, the reporters tired of Pete Townsend riffs and Bob Dylan lyrics, we moved on to other toys. The Super Bowl XLI trophy was held aloft. We were going to thumb through the first issue of “Playboy” — the one that features Marilyn Monroe, but it had already been prepped for display by our sometimes overly conscientious staff. When asked what he would tweet about the magazine, Mr. Irsay broke up the place with, “I swear it’s not mine, mom. I have no idea how it got under my bed.” We did examine a script from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. Now go a-way or I shall taunt you again!”), and a note from General Washington sent to an aide ordering him to recruit spies on Manhattan Island. I became less anxious. Kara continued to sweat.

Come see Chaos when it opens on Jan. 27. It’ll be a hoot.

Just for the fun of it!

by Dale Ogden, Senior Curator of Cultural History

I’ve dealt with some pretty heavy business in the exhibitions I’ve curated at the Indiana State Museum during the course of my career. Years ago, we produced Indiana at War, which chronicled the state’s involvement in America’s military conflicts. One of my favorites, Objects of Desire: Cars and Clothes of the Jazz Age featured classic Indiana-made automobiles like Duesenberg and Stutz. The sexy cars and slinky clothing, though, were just period props that allowed us to talk about things like Prohibition, racial mixing in jazz clubs and the rise of organized crime. 2010’s With Charity for All, our contribution to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial observation, involved such lighthearted topics as chronic depression, the loss of a child, the slaughter at Antietam and assassination.

So, every now and again, it’s nice to do an exhibition if for no other reason than just the pure fun of it. Chaos is a Friend of Mine: Cultural Icons from the Jim Irsay Collection would qualify as one of those projects.

From 1979 to 1989, "Tiger" served as the main instrument for the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. On loan from the collection of James. S. Irsay.

For the uninitiated, Indy will host Super Bowl XLVI in February and everybody in town is looking for a way to get on the bandwagon. Our in is that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay will host the NFL Owner’s Party at the museum a few days before the big game. I hear it will involve several hundred of Mr. Irsay’s closest friends, an A-list comic as MC, some well-known Baby Boomer rock-n-rollers for entertainment and a smidgen of top-shelf libations.

To our great good fortune, in addition to owning the local NFL franchise, Mr. Irsay is also a collector of international reputation. His prize possession is Jack Kerouac’s 120-foot-long manuscript scroll of the Beat Generation manifesto On the Road. But Irsay’s interests are remarkably … eclectic. In addition to the aforementioned treatise, guitars that belonged to Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, George Harrison and others are among the artifacts he has acquired. Austin Powers’ famed horn-rimmed glasses, a copy of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail script, letters from Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, and a myriad of other treasures are to be found within the Irsay Collection.

We’ll be exhibiting a sampling from this trove from Jan. 27 through May 6. It’s been a fun project to assemble. Any time you have the opportunity to quote Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Frankenstein and George Will in the same text, you’ve got to enjoy yourself. More to come.

A few of our favorite things

by Katy Creagh, Art & Culture Program Developer, and Eric Todd, Program Specialist

 Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with strings,
these are a few of my favorite things.

A very young Katy!

ERIC: I don’t know about you, but that list does not resemble my favorite things.
KATY: What about kittens?
ERIC: I like kittens, but not whiskers, specifically.  I prefer warm woolen mittens, if I had to choose.
KATY: I guess you’re right. And why do they keep playing this song at Christmas anyway? They don’t even talk about Christmas.
ERIC: That’s a valid point. Plus, everyone knows the best Christmas song is “Sleigh Ride.”
KATY: I completely disagree. Everyone knows it’s “Santa Baby.” No, “Carol of the Bells.” No, no, my real favorite is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
ERIC: Counterpoints, in order: Too risqué, too boring, and to use your own criteria from earlier, I’m not sure that song even mentions Christmas.
KATY: Fine. So, what’s your favorite Christmas cookie?
ERIC: That one is easy. My mom makes cookies every year that she, my brother, and I decorate. My designs are so poor that they aren’t allowed to be given to the neighbors. But maybe I’ll bring you one. You?
KATY: Mine are holly cookies. It’s a traditional Borchers family recipe, and it’s really difficult to make — you mix Corn Flakes, marshmallows, butter and green food coloring then add red hots for berries. Sounds difficult doesn’t it?
ERIC: Sounds kind of gross. Corn Flakes and red hots?
KATY: At least my mom can give mine away.
ERIC: Touché. What’s your favorite Christmas present you ever received?
KATY: It was a small, wooden chair and cradle for my baby dolls.

Young Eric

ERIC: That’s the stereotypical girl present. My favorite gift was a basketball goal that, despite what my mother would tell you, was an indoor toy.
KATY: How very male of you. Okay, here’s a big one: favorite Christmas memory?
ERIC: That’s tough because you have so many more Christmases to pull from.
KATY: We’re six months apart.
ERIC: Nevertheless. Favorite Christmas memory … One year my brother, friend and I sat in my room waiting for our parents to give us an early, joint Christmas present. We listened to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something on repeat for an hour — so that will always be a Christmas song to me, returning to our earlier debate. But then we received our gift: sleds. It hadn’t snowed in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in five years, but I can promise you that we were very excited.
KATY: Nice. Here’s mine. We were in Wisconsin, and because of the weather we got stuck at my Aunt and Uncle’s place and went to Christmas Eve service where my cousin performed in a play. There was a nativity scene reenactment as part of the Christmas play. A very young girl playing Mary walked in carrying one baby Jesus. When she got to the manger there was a sleeping baby Jesus already there. She picked up the sleeping baby and asked the crowd which one she should use. My dad and his brother — two grown men — could not stop laughing in the middle of church.

The adult versions of Katy and Eric still love Santa!

ERIC: That’s a good one. Now let’s plug the exhibit. What about your favorite part of Celebration Crossing?
KATY: By far, my favorite thing to do is to write Santa a letter, drop it in his mailbox and wait for a response.
ERIC: That’s nice, but asking for a present is your favorite part? That’s a bit greedy. Lest we forget, Christmas is the season of giving. Personally, my favorite part is riding the train when it’s full of Celebration Crossing visitors. You know, celebrating the season with friends, spreading holiday cheer and other selfless acts.
KATY: Oh, whatever. You’re just trying to suck up to Santa.

Come visit Celebration Crossing to have your picture taken with Santa, write him a letter and ride the Santa Claus Express between now and Dec. 24 and decide on YOUR favorite thing!

From Toyland to Celebration Crossing

by Mary Jane Teeters-Eichacker, Curator of Social History

It all started with a train. When L.S. Ayres closed its downtown flagship store in 1990, it donated its iconic Santa Claus Express miniature train to the Indiana State Museum along with the L.S. Ayres animated window and Tea Room memorabilia. The train had been the centerpiece of Ayres’ “Toyland” since 1958, and given holiday joy to generations of Hoosiers. The museum couldn’t let that tradition die! So it opened a new holiday exhibit, “Toy Soldiers’ Playground,” so called because some giant toy soldier figures were available as decorations. The exhibit included a ride on the Santa Claus Express train, a visit to Santa Claus and the L.S. Ayres window, as well as toys and examples from the L.S. Ayres clothing collection in the Victorian setting of the museum’s former home in old City Hall. The recreated L.S. Ayres Tea Room began as a wildly popular program offered in conjunction with this exhibit.

When the new museum opened in 2002, the familiar features continued, but our building isn’t very Victorian! The exhibit needed a new setting; the village of Celebration Crossing. A few years later the original train was reproduced in a larger size to dependably accommodate today’s bigger youngsters. The old train remains a memorable “photo op” in the museum’s lobby, while new memories can be made in the popular exhibit upstairs.

Celebration Crossing opens Nov. 25 and continues through Dec. 31. Santa will be visiting with children in his house through Dec. 24.

Witch’s Brew

by Gaby Kienitz, Head Conservator

Conservators have all the trappings of a magical enterprise — a stock of arcane ingredients, “potions” that we mix up ourselves, tongue twisting phrases that we use and transformative powers on objects. Don’t believe me? Well, I might not have eye of newt or puppy dog tails, but I sometimes clean an object with my own spit; I’ve used things like fish skin glue and lamb intestine for repairs; and I regularly use an ethyl methacrylate methyl acrylate copolymer.

A cast iron tea pot before (above) and after (below) Gaby works her magic.

In order for the “magic” (a.k.a. work) to happen, a conservation lab needs lots and lots of ingredients and tools. There is such a huge variety of objects that come through the lab with such a range of problems, that a certain treatment might be performed only occasionally and thus only a small amount of a certain supply is needed. Sourcing just a little of these supplies can be a challenge. Imagine my dismay when I was missing a few milliliters of one crucial ingredient for the solution needed to treat a collection of cast iron cookware and fire dogs from Corydon Capitol State Historic Site that had been damaged by water leaking from a chimney. My magic wand was broken!

The ingredient I needed — phosphoric acid — is so common that I couldn’t imagine not finding it sold locally. It’s what gives some colas the “bright” taste, it’s a homeopathic medicine, brewers and hydroponic gardeners use it to lower the pH of their mash and water respectively, it can be used as a flux for soldering metals, and it’s used as a rust and hard water scale remover. Everyone I called either didn’t have it or didn’t have it in the pure form that I needed. It was hard to fathom that I would need to have it shipped from elsewhere, like a rare and precious commodity.

Fire dogs before (above) and after (below) conservation.

Just as I was about to give up, Tuxedo Park Brewers Supply came to the rescue with what I needed. I’m used to buying supplies from some interesting places, but theirs is at the top of my list. Their shop exterior is a brightly painted scene of orange and yellow wheat fields with a bright blue sky that you can only find by going down an otherwise drab, nondescript alley in Fountain Square. Yes, that’s right, their storefront is the alley.

This was a simple potion that I mixed for the treatment of the corroded cast iron, just some tannic acid and phosphoric acid. Tannic acid is a product that has been used since ancient times for making inks, in fabric dyeing and leather processing; it occurs naturally in tree galls, the bark of some trees and in tea leaves. It sounds scary, but it comes in the form of a fluffy, tan colored powder. Luckily, I had a whole bottle of tannic acid powder and once I mixed that with some de-ionized water, added a few drops of the phosphoric acid and heated it up, it was ready to be applied onto the surface with hog hair brushes. Through the magic of chemistry, the rust is converted to a stable, black colored corrosion layer. You can see for yourself what a few ingredients can do to change the appearance of some frightening looking objects. If you want to see them in person, you’ll have to visit Corydon Capitol State Historic Site.

Things that go bump in the night!

by Mike Linderman, Angel Mounds Site Manager

Last Friday night we hosted our first paranormal investigation of the Angel Mounds State Historic Site Interpretive Center, thanks to the Paranormal Investigators of Henderson Kentucky (PIHK), who led the “hunt.” For years, the staff at Angel Mounds have encountered all sorts of strange things in the building, from knocks on doors, weird human-like sounds from deep within the exhibit space and the occasional shadow that moves, even though the people in the room are not moving.

The investigation started about 11 that night and went on until 4 a.m. the next morning. Tickets were sold so that the general public could experience what goes bump in the night in the building. About two hours into the investigation, the three “hunters” working upstairs came running down with audio evidence of the sound of finger snapping and one of the largest bangs we have ever heard in the building, even though the rest of us in the building did not hear it. We usually chock these sounds up to the building popping and cracking as it cools or heats up through the day. Both of these sounds that night were foreign to the staff. Listen to one of the whines heard in the building — it comes in at about the four-second mark.

In the past, the staff has set up audio and video recording devices in the building and have picked up the sounds of boxes being moved on desks, high pitched whines and the most impressive piece — a video of a shadow passing in front of the camera with enough translucence that you can see the furniture behind the shadow. These all occurred when no one was in the building.

Many people ask us about the village site and whether or not it is haunted. We like to think of the village site and the mounds as a peaceful place, and no one has ever been afraid to be out there, even after dark. Our modern Interpretive Center is another story. Maybe you too can join our ghost hunt next October!

Time on their hands …

Time on their hands…

Steam clock repairs…

There are only 12 steam clocks in the world, and the Indiana State Museumis lucky enough to have one of them. No one else had even imagined a clock powered by steam before Raymond Saunders of Vancouver, British Columbia, had the idea to build one in 1977 for the Gastown area of Vancouver. That one was built to cover a central heat steam vent in the sidewalk. Saunders since went on to build six more, including ours.

The 17-foot tall Indiana State Museum steam clock is located on the sidewalk on the canal side of the museum. It has four 24-inch diameter dials, back-lit by neon. The clock’s eight brass whistles play a few bars of “Back Home Again in Indiana” every 15 minutes, with a fuller rendition played at the top of every hour.

However, the clock has been out of order this summer and needed to be repaired. Turns out it was somewhat of a plumbing issue, with leaky pipes to the eight solenoids that feed into the eight whistles playing “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

So for now, the HVAC people are fixing the leaks. But eventually Mr. Saunders may need to travel from Vancouver to tune the whistles … stay tuned! Yes, pun intended.

 

From corn to car parts?

by guest blogger Angela Harris, Research Engineer at Ford Motor Company

This past year, I had the incredible opportunity to work with the Indiana State Museum to help develop an exhibit called Amazing Maize, which highlights the history and many uses of corn. Throughout the development of the exhibit, I was able to share with them how Ford Motor Company is actively researching opportunities to develop new, sustainable materials for our vehicles. At Ford, we believe in taking a total green approach to vehicle development and design, stepping beyond fuel efficiency and what’s under the hood; to incorporating sustainable materials into the vehicles we build.

Samples of materials and parts made from PLA.

Did you know traditional plastic materials are most commonly derived from petroleum? We realize petroleum is a limited resource and are looking at many different ways to reduce our usage. One way to achieve this is by using crops that can be grown as a renewable feedstock for plastics. We have already been successful developing and implementing soy-based foams for seat backs, cushions and headrests in the majority of the vehicles we produce. Our team has also included wheat straw as a filler in storage bins on the Ford Flex. Another material we are now actively researching for future use is a biodegradable plastic that is 100 percent corn based, called polylactide (PLA).

I’m sure plastic car parts are not the first thing that come to mind when you think about uses for corn, is it? So how do you get plastic from corn? Basically, the PLA plastic comes from corn starch, which can ultimately be processed into a part, fiber or film. Even though we are early in the development phase with PLA, we see many future potential automotive uses for this eco-friendly plastic in vehicle carpeting, upholstery and interior trim pieces. We are actively pursuing each of these applications and hope one day you will find corn-based plastic inside your next Ford vehicle. You can get a first-hand look at some of our prototype PLA parts we have developed, as a part of the Amazing Maize exhibit!

As I mentioned, PLA is biodegradable. In fact, PLA plastic parts will degrade to produce energy — carbon dioxide and water — in 90 to 120 days under the right composting conditions, compared to traditional petroleum based plastic which takes up to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill. Since this plastic is compostable, we are researching ways to ensure that the PLA meets our durability and performance requirements. After all, we don’t want your car to compost while you’re still driving it! When we introduce a new material into our vehicles, that material must meet all of our stringent specifications and standards.

The Indiana State Museum’s Amazing Maize exhibit, opening Sept. 24, will give museum-goers a first hand look at Ford’s bio-materials research program, as well as a look inside our corn-based ethanol technology. It’s a great example of significant, industrial uses for corn and innovations for the future of corn. We, at Ford Motor Company, are so excited to be a part of this educational exhibit.