Set up as a train depot, this gallery invites visitors to sit with other passengers and listen to issues from Indiana’s Golden Age (1880-1920) being discussed. Hop on the train and hear stories and music being played.
Step back to a time when politics weren’t for everyone. See the 1890s voting machine, which represents Indiana’s power as a political swing state, as well as a set of “Votes for Women” pins that reminds us that not everyone could vote at the turn of the 20th century.
This gallery also demonstrates how after the Civil War, industry, arts, literature and politics flourished nationally. Here at home, Indiana’s lively mix of urban and rural, immigrants and natives, lead to a creative burst. Local writers gained a national audience, spreading the state’s reputation as a reservoir of solid, all-American values and uncommon common sense.
Although this time period is considered Indiana’s “Golden Age,” it wasn’t golden for everyone. African Americans were largely left out; socialist Eugene Debs fought for workers’ rights; and Indiana did not give women the right to vote until 1921, a year after the federal government had already granted them that right.