Taking Delight in Interviewing the Neighborhood

Sidney Moore is a second-year Museum Studies Masters candidate and works at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. She currently is doing an internship focused on developing an exhibit of the near west side neighborhood that once existed where the IUPUI campus is now located.  

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was one of my favorite shows growing up. Mr. Rogers talked to everyone in the neighborhood about their jobs and lives. He was the first person to teach me about interviewing people through his thoughtful questions and the way he cared so much about the people in his neighborhood. Although reading books and articles on historical facts is important for exhibit research, I have found through my internship interviews have been even more rewarding than I could have ever expected. Over the course of the past semester, I have been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to project manage and begin developing the Welcome to the Neighborhood! exhibit. A year ago, I was not even contemplating participating in an internship, as I had originally planned to create a project instead. Through this internship though, I have learned so much about the people who lived in the neighborhood where IUPUI now resides and it was through interviewing those who lived and worked there that I acquired the most interesting information.

Community Advisory meeting

Although the loss of the near west side neighborhood is a difficult topic in many respects, the process of researching the history of the area has been very enlightening. There were many people who enriched the neighborhood in various ways. Some, like Madame C.J. Walker, are well known in history for their accomplishments and philanthropic work. Others are less known, such as Mr. Ira Johnson. He was one of the last residents of the neighborhood. He also contributed through his construction background by building some of the important monuments in the City of Indianapolis. As both of these residents and many others being highlighted in the exhibit have passed, their stories are remembered by others I have interviewed.

Mr. Ridley on the left and Ira Johnson on the right.

Throughout the last semester, I spent time with community advisors like Mr. Ridley. He grew up in the neighborhood as a child and had a new home built in Ransom Place during the early 1990’s, so he could move back. At 95 years old, he was able to give me historical information on the neighborhood which a book could never offer. He provided me with information on places he loved to visit as a child, such as the Century Biscuit Company where he used to get 10 cent bags of broken cookies or how he could go to the movies all days for $1.50. It is memories like these which enhance an exhibit and offer a connection between the visitor and the daily lives of those who lived in the neighborhood.   Additionally, Mr. Ridley connected me to other residents, so I could schedule interviews with them.

Overall, I was able to interview 10 residents who grew up in the neighborhood. Each of them have their own perspective on growing up in a segregated area of Indianapolis. Learning about the unsung heroes of the near west side neighborhood and their incredible lives through these interviews are important to the exhibit development process and have made my first exhibit one which has been so memorable. “There are so many people in this world who do so many things for others”, Mr. Rogers’ use to say, and the near west side neighborhood is no different.

Sample exhibit design layout for Welcome to the Neighborhood!