The mission of the Putnam County Museum is to collect, preserve, and interpret the natural, historical and cultural heritage of the county and its people through education, exhibits and special programs.
Putnam County, located in west-central Indiana, was established in 1822 and has preserved much of its rural mid-western character into the twenty-first century. The county’s topography, a patchwork of fields, woodland, flat prairie, rolling hills, and farms of corn, soybeans, hogs, and livestock, is typical of the region. Numerous covered and iron bridges and a half dozen crossroad villages are reminders of the county’s agrarian roots. One third of the county’s population of 34,000 lives in Greencastle, which has a 1903 courthouse with a WWII buzz bomb on the lawn at the center of an intact commercial square. The county has a typical mix of light manufacturing, schools, churches, and small businesses. In Greencastle there are several historic landmarks: DePauw University, founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College; Central National Bank, victim of John Dillinger’s biggest heist in 1933; the site of Eli Lilly’s first pharmacy (1861); and the place where William H. Herndon wrote Herndon's Lincoln in 1887, the first biography of Lincoln.
Until recently the county did not have an institution to collect and preserve the artifacts that could tell the many stories of the county’s people past and present. In the late 1990’s the Putnam County Historical Society began exploring the possibility of a permanent home for the collection, preservation and protection of artifacts and stories relating to Putnam County and its people. Working with Main Street Greencastle, the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and interested community members, public meetings were held to broadcast the endeavor.
From that first gathering in 2000 until 2002 when a location was secured through the support of the Putnam County Board of Commissioner, volunteers formed a board of directors, elected officers, and wrote policies, procedures and by-laws. The museum applied to the Putnam County Community Foundation for a grant of $20,000. Community contributions added $10,000 making it possible to hire the first director in January 2003.
The museum’s first home was one and one-half classrooms in the old Jones School, now the Putnam County Courthouse Annex. Furnishings for the fledgling museum were used chairs, desks, shelving and filing cabinets. Enthusiastic volunteers helped with everything from cleaning glass cases and the recording of artifacts donated to the museum’s collections, to manning the museum during visiting hours.
In 2006 the museum made a major move to its present location on North Jackson Street. There was an extraordinary community response which supported the museum with financial assistance, volunteered hours moving the collections from the original site, and cleaning and painting at the new site. In addition, donations in kind provided much of the skilled labor and materials necessary to convert the large, empty space to an attractive and functional museum.
Putnam County has a proud heritage; the Putnam County Museum, with its permanent collections, revolving exhibits, educational programs, and offering of meeting space to many area organizations, guarantees that heritage will be preserved for generations to come.