New Education Center Will Expand Reach of Wylie House Museum
Situated on a corner lot near downtown Bloomington, Indiana, the Wylie House Museum is a stately reminder of our shared past. As the home of Indiana University’s first president, it offers insight to IU’s academic beginnings.
In April, friends of the Wylie House celebrated the Campaign for the Wylie House Museum, a fundraising effort to support an endowment and current museum needs. Campaign co-chairs Judith A. O’Bannon and Patricia Ryan hosted the event.
“The Victorian Era was a time of great change,” O’Bannon says. “New technologies were being developed, new discoveries and advances in science were being made, women’s roles were changing for the better, waves of immigrants were coming into our country and bringing bits of their own culture with them. When you walk into a house like this, you aren’t just faced with facts and figures, you experience what it felt like to live in the Victorian Era.”
The Campaign for the Wylie House Museum
Plans are now under way to build an education center to expand the work of the Wylie House Museum. Designed by the IU Architect’s Office to resemble a barn of the period, the center will include:
- a multipurpose classroom
- an exhibition room
- a room to house Theophilus A. Wylie’s personal library
- staff offices and workrooms
- handicapped-accessible restrooms
- a kitchen for catered events
Bringing History Home
Elegantly appointed rooms and working gardens provide inspiration and historical reference for students studying disciplines from literature and design to sociology and folklore. In addition to hosting classes from IU, the museum attracts interested visitors from Bloomington and across Indiana, including elementary- and middle-school students.
Copyright © 2006 The Trustees of Indiana University