Floor SpeechCeremonial2025-11-20

RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS

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On 2025-11-20, Senator Todd Young (R-IN) delivered a floor speech titled "RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS" in the Senate.

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RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S8270] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the 100th anniversary of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Towards the end of the 1920s, a Canadian newspaper took note of a collection in America's Midwest. One of its reporters marveled, ``In Indianapolis, Indiana, there is a unique institution called the Children's Museum. . . . '' Today, a century later, that institution is no less unique. It is now the largest museum for children in the entire world and the fourth oldest. But to describe it as solely a museum for children is a misnomer. In the era of the museum's founding, opportunities for young people to learn and grow beyond the classroom were sometimes rare, and the museum provided them. This is what Mary Stewart Carey--the businesswoman who founded the institution--and the numerous Indianapolis civic and leaders who helped it grow, intended. In the museum, children were not just guests, but directors and curators. They formed clubs to boost enrollment in the museum; first prize for most students enlisted was a goldfish aquarium. They sat on a junior board of directors. They examined and wrote reports on the exhibits and went on field trips across the country to find objects to help fill them. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis was a museum by children, a place where they were encouraged to think and dream, to both study and reach for the stars. It still is. This year, the museum celebrates its centenary. It is not simply a commemoration of a building and its exhibits--though those, from the Dinosphere to the Fireworks of Glass, to the Treasures of the Earth to The Liberty Bell 7, are remarkable. Nor is it exclusively an opportunity to commend the museum and its leaders for their contributions to Indiana's economic and cultural life, which are considerable. It is also, importantly, a chance to reflect on all the memories created within and beyond its walls, the interest in natural history, archaeology, and science cultivated inside and the many young lives touched by this museum. A century on, in Indianapolis, that unique institution once remarked upon by a visitor still stands and still astonishes. Long may it do both. ____________________

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RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 196 (Thursday, November 20, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S8270] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] RECOGNIZING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF INDIANAPOLIS Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the 100th anniversary of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Towards the end of the 1920s, a Canadian newspaper took note of a collection in America's Midwest. One of its reporters marveled, ``In Indianapolis, Indiana, there is a unique institution called the Children's Museum. . . . '' Today, a century later, that institution is no less unique. It is now the largest museum for children in the entire world and the fourth oldest. But to describe it as solely a museum for children is a misnomer. In the era of the museum's founding, opportunities for young people to learn and grow beyond the classroom were sometimes rare, and the museum provided them. This is what Mary Stewart Carey--the businesswoman who founded the institution--and the numerous Indianapolis civic and leaders who helped it grow, intended. In the museum, children were not just guests, but directors and curators. They formed clubs to boost enrollment in the museum; first prize for most students enlisted was a goldfish aquarium. They sat on a junior board of directors. They examined and wrote reports on the exhibits and went on field trips across the country to find objects to help fill them. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis was a museum by children, a place where they were encouraged to think and dream, to both study and reach for the stars. It still is. This year, the museum celebrates its centenary. It is not simply a commemoration of a building and its exhibits--though those, from the Dinosphere to the Fireworks of Glass, to the Treasures of the Earth to The Liberty Bell 7, are remarkable. Nor is it exclusively an opportunity to commend the museum and its leaders for their contributions to Indiana's economic and cultural life, which are considerable. It is also, importantly, a chance to reflect on all the memories created within and beyond its walls, the interest in natural history, archaeology, and science cultivated inside and the many young lives touched by this museum. A century on, in Indianapolis, that unique institution once remarked upon by a visitor still stands and still astonishes. Long may it do both. ____________________