The Indiana State Museum’s collection contains hundreds of thousands of items ranging from prehistoric fossils to current popular culture items and everything in between. Most items in the collection have an important connection to the Indiana story while others may simply be an excellent example of a particular artifact from a given time period. The collection has increased throughout the nearly 150 years of the museum’s existence and is housed in the museum’s administration building as well as off-site storage facilities. At any given time, only approximately 2 to 3% of the museum’s collection is on display in exhibits.
The exhibits of the Indiana State Museum are comprised of the Core Galleries telling the Indiana Story and including the Legacy Theater, Changing Exhibits such as special traveling exhibits. While the Core Galleries may appear the same, artifacts from the vast collection are actually rotated in and out of displays approximately four times each year. In some cases, these changes are small but in many cases, the changes are significant. The Indiana Treasures Cases also spotlight various items from the collection not currently featured in any other exhibit.
Acquiring, tracking, displaying, researching and caring for such an enormous collection means that the staff of the Indiana State 
Museum is a wealth of knowledge in many different areas. Below is a current listing of our subject matter experts. Please click on the name/subject to e-mail a question to that subject matter expert. You can also research our collection to learn more about items you may have seen while visiting the museum.