Museum History
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. So, public meetings were held to work on the idea with Main Street Greencastle, the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as with interested community members.
From that first gathering in 2000 until 2002, when the Putnam County Board of Commissioner helped secure a location, volunteers formed a board of directors, elected officers, wrote policies, procedures, and by-laws. With the Putnam County Community Foundation's grant of $20,000 and $10,000 in community contributions, we were able to hire the first director in January 2003.
The Museum's first home was one and a half classroom in the old Jones School, now the Putnam County Courthouse Annex. Enthusiastic volunteers helped with everything from cleaning glass cases and recording artifacts donated to the Museum, to manning the Museum during visiting hours.
In 2006 the Museum made a major move to its present location on North Jackson Street. Once again, community stepped up with extraordinary support for the Museum, providing financial assistance, volunteering hours to move the collections from the original site, clean and paint 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
Located in west-central Indiana, Putnam County was established in 1822, and has preserved much of its rural mid-western character into the twenty-first century. Typical of the region, the county's landscape includes vast fields, woodland, flat prairie, rolling hills, and farms of corn, soybeans, hogs, and livestock. 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.
Greencastle is home to several historic landmarks: DePauw University, founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College; Central National Bank, victim of John Dillinger's biggest heist in 1933, and the site of Eli Lilly's first pharmacy (1861). Greencastle is also where William H. Herndon wrote the first ever biography of Abraham Lincoln, Herndon's Lincoln, in 1887.
Until the establishment of the Putnam County Museum, the county did not have an institution to collect and preserve the artifacts that could tell the many stories of the county's people, their past and present. Today, the Museum is a growing, dynamic community institution, where children, and adults alike, get to participate in fun events and programs as well as learn about the county's heritage and pass it on to future generations. Our staff, interns and volunteers are dedicated to making any visitor's experience at the Museum a memorable one, adding to the county's cultural and educational scene.