I feel that when most people hear the word “museum” the first
things that comes to mind are paintings hanging on a wall or an
old house filled with furniture you can’t sit on. The emphasis
is on collecting objects and artifacts and using them in a
static way to try to connect the past with the present.
Throughout its history, I’m not sure that Conner Prairie has
ever fit that traditional definition. Although we do have a
permanent collection of about 28,000 artifacts, these objects
have always been looked at as a learning collection, one that is
meant to be able to be examined and used in various ways by our
craftsmen, facilitators and guests to bring Indiana’s history to
life. One area of collecting that is not normally thought of is
not really material, but more “living”. Historic skills,
heirloom plants and rare livestock breeds are all parts of this
“living” collection. Of course the surface value of a repository
of such things is evident: the excitement a young visitor gets
in seeing the blacksmith work