To the average person, the word “museum” may conjure up traditional images of cobwebs, antiques and archaeologists. But the Indiana State Museum is far from being a traditional museum.
“We have an obligation to make the museum experience both fun and educational,” said Dale Ogden, Chief Curator of Cultural History. “We have to leave people with something cool that they didn’t know before they visited the museum.”
As part of that obligation, Ogden has worked to build the museum’s popular culture collection, part of the Global Indiana portion of the Indiana Story Galleries. This segment of the collection covers modern items from sports memorabilia to entertainment media like radio, film, television … and everything in between. When he first began the popular culture portion of the collection, Ogden’s purpose was to expand the breadth of the overall museum collection and make it relevant to today’s audience.
“Popular culture is part of the overall presentation, the complexity that we create,” he said. “It’s a fairly recent idea for museums to start collecting more contemporary items. In the past, our collection had been narrower in scope and very focused on more traditional museum items; there was an immense amount of human endeavor we never touched on. And a huge part of our culture is our leisure time and how we spend it.”
Ogden said that he tries not to be trendy about the collection, but instead selects items that he thinks will best represent the popular culture of this era in the future. 
“At one time, everything we have was modern. Things evolve into historical relevance. During his lifetime, James Whitcomb Riley was just as much a figure of popular culture as John Mellencamp is today.”
As an added bonus, the popular culture portion of the collection gives young visitors a personal connection to the museum. The excitement created for children – and adults as well - in seeing a Garfield coffee mug or Reggie Miller’s jersey can give them more enthusiasm for their part in history by creating a personal connection for them.
“There’s nothing wrong with having a part of the museum that’s just fun,” Ogden said. “Visitors are able to enjoy it and still learn something. There have to be places in the museum where kids can discover good, fun things they didn’t know. If we give them items that mean something to them, that makes the museum experience more relevant. If they’re told everything is important, they just shut down after awhile.”
Of course, the museum does house plenty of antiques and archaeologists (and occasionally a few cobwebs). However, the personal connection created by these contemporary items can help visitors feel like they are a part of Hoosier history and lead to an understanding of the role antiques and archaeologists play in revealing the pop culture of the past.