The Seventies

In keeping with the museum's desire to relate to youth the museum looked at an issue facing the nation in the early '70s with an exhibit called "Drug Scene: Indianapolis" in 1972. In 1973, the Children's Museum Challenge Fund began efforts to build a new, larger museum. Construction began in 1974, the same year that the Vickers toy train collection was acquired. The fiftieth anniversary of the Museum saw a new logo and the installation of the Carousel on the fifth floor of the new building, which was completed in 1976. The same year, the Museum sent out a traveling exhibit titled "All Things Move," which visited 93 cities in 37 states! Attendance during the last quarter of 1976 was a staggering 304,000. Science Spectrum opened in 1979 and Rex joined the Children's Museum family as the un-official mascot.
(Photo gallery below)