Conner Prairie’s mission is to inspire curiosity and foster learning about Indiana’s past by providing engaging, individualized and unique experiences.

Conner Prairie is a large, open-air living history museum made up of four distinct historic areas, a modern museum center and over 800 acres of natural beauty. Conner Prairie researches and interprets the past to create experiences that bring 19th-century events and situations into clear focus for guests.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, Conner Prairie is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. More than 50 percent of Conner Prairie's operating funds must be raised annually from donations, memberships, grants, admissions, catering and retail sales.

The Conner Prairie story The land that is now Conner Prairie was home for thousands of years to prehistoric Woodland Indians who farmed the natural flood plain of the White River. Lenape (Delaware) Indians lived on the land in the late 18th and early 19th centuries before frontiersman William Conner arrived, established a log home and trading post and married Mekinges, a Lenape woman of rank. After the Native American removal, Conner remarried and built a substantial brick residence on the land in 1823, and in 1871 the land passed out of Conner family ownership. It remained farmland but changed hands many times until 1934 when philanthropist Eli Lilly purchased and restored the William Conner homestead for public visitation and established Conner Prairie Farm, and since then Conner Prairie has operated continuously and become a nationally acclaimed living history museum.

Innovation: A True Pioneer

The “Conner Prairie Concept” Conner Prairie has been viewed as an innovator in the museum industry since 1974 for originating the “Conner Prairie Concept.” This first-person interpretation technique creates a deeply realistic and thought-provoking experience for guests when costumed interpreters teach and demonstrate history by assuming the roles of fictional, yet historically accurate and time-specific characters. Interpreters never step out of character when interacting with guests, acting out the thoughts, feelings, daily chores and activities of the represented time periods. The success of the "Conner Prairie Concept" has led to an even more in-depth approach called "immersion history," as seen in programs such as Follow the North Star, Fall Creek Massacre and Hearthside Suppers, where guests take on a first-person role and become active participants in a historical drama they help create.

Opening Doors is Conner Prairie’s bold new approach to engaging guests in great learning experiences. Based on nationally recognized, groundbreaking learning research conducted at the museum, staff and volunteers have helped put guests at the center of their museum visit, offering unique hands-on and minds-on opportunities. Under Opening Doors, historic interpreters now interact more freely with guests, allowing the conversation to follow guests’ interests. Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Conner Prairie staff and consultants then created a first-of-its-kind interactive training DVD/CD-ROM resource to share with museums, zoos and learning organizations around the world. The 90-minute DVD and interactive CD-ROM focus on communication skills for front-line staff using the award-winning Conner Prairie Opening Doors approach. Museums from across the country and around the world—from Ireland to New Zealand—are now using this resource to improve offerings for their guests.

Accomplishments

• The Sycamore Foundation awarded Conner Prairie the Indiana Achievement Award in the Innovation Large Organization category. The Indiana Achievement Awards honors Indiana not-for-profits for innovation, impact and sustainability.
• The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) awarded Conner Prairie an Award of Merit from the AASLH Leadership in History Awards for the Opening Doorsinitiative. Recognizing achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history, an Award of Merit was previously given to Conner Prairie in 1999 for the Follow the North Star program.
• The Berrien County Intermediate School District in Michigan awarded Conner Prairie’s distance learning programs the Teacher’s Choice Award for Best Historical Museum.
• The History Channel awarded Conner Prairie a Save Our History Grant to partner with students from Carmel High School to research and develop programming based on the work of Charles Christopher Trowbridge, an early Indiana resident who studies the Lenape Indians. The result was Conner Prairie’s Say It in Lenape Languageprogram.
• The Arts Council of Indianapolis awarded Conner Prairie the ARTFUL Impact Award. This award, also called the ARTI, celebrates unique and lasting contributions to the arts in Indianapolis.
• 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up!, a recent Frommer travel book, highlighted Conner Prairie as a fantastic travel destination among such global greats as the Taj Mahal, the Acropolis and the Great Sphinx.

More than 175,000 guests, including over 60,000 school children, annually experience Conner Prairie’s historical and educational programs, exhibits, tours and special events. The museum received national and international attention for its pioneering research into guest learning, was ranked one of the top five tourist attractions in the Midwest by Family Fun Magazine and received honors from the American Association for State and Local History for its groundbreaking program on the Underground Railroad.

Our land and facilities

• 800 acres of land—Located six miles north of Indianapolis on the White River in Fishers, Indiana
• Modern Museum Center—Includes a permanent exhibit gallery, restaurant, gift shop, classrooms, meeting rooms, administrative offices, research library and collections storage
• Four historic areas (with over 45 buildings):

Lenape Indian Camp—This historic area, which includes an encampment and trading post, provides guests the opportunity to learn more about how Native Americans interacted with frontier traders during the time they lived on the land that is now Conner Prairie.

1836 Prairietown—This historically accurate village comes to life through its “residents” who play fictional, historically accurate characters that look, act, speak and work as the pioneers did and inviting guests to join in life’s daily activities, like farm chores, cooking and feeding livestock.

1886 Liberty Corner—The newest attraction, this rural crossroads features the Cedar Chapel Covered Bridge, district schoolhouse, Quaker meetinghouse and working Victorian-era farm.

Conner Homestead—William Conner’s 1823 Federal-style home, on its original site, was one of the first brick structures built in central Indiana; the homestead also features a barn, loom house, springhouse, nature trail and garden

• Featherston Barn—1870s three-level barn used for educational programming and special events
• Prairie House—Modern log building used for youth, camp and scouting programs
• Amphitheater—Site of Conner Prairie’s Indiana Festival and Symphony on the Prairie8, the summer concert series of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra attended by over 80,000 guests annually
• Chinese House—Summer home of Eli Lilly decorated in Chinese style, now used as catering rental facility
• Bubenzer House—Home on property used as catering rental facility

Collections

• 29,000 artifacts, both originals and reproductions
• 19th- and 20th-century objects including clothing, pottery, china, quilts and coverlets, furniture, tools, vehicles and machinery

Budget, staff, volunteers and members

• An operating budget in excess of $9 million for the year 2007
• 250 full- and part-time paid staff under the direction of the President and CEO
• 350 volunteers including approximately 100 youth and 250 adults serving as office assistants, gardeners, woodworkers, guides and event facilitators
• Volunteer leadership provided through a Museum Board and a Foundation Board
• 4,300 memberships (representing more than 19,000 people)