The Dubois County Museum’s collections consist of over 20,000 artifacts donated mainly by local people. Occasionally individuals have learned about our museum and given items that they felt should be part of the collections. Items are accepted consistent with our mission to “collect, preserve, and interpret the history of Dubois County.”
People wanting to donate items to the museum are urged to contact the museum’s Collection Committee before bringing in the items.
The museum’s collections strengths include historical portraits, photographs, and negatives; military artifacts; sports memorabilia; Native American artifacts; textiles and artifacts from the early 1800’s to the 1900’s; dollhouses and miniatures; a log house; antique farm equipment; woodworking tools; and products made by local factories.
All of the museum’s artifacts are curated and cataloged. Items on exhibit are tracked, and an exhibit record is kept for each item. All items are cataloged and stored by one of the following divisions: objects, photos, library, and archives.
Over 10,000 of the museum’s collections are historical objects including furniture, textiles, military artifacts, domestic items, ceramics, glass, woodworking tools, agricultural items, metalwork, medical artifacts, and artwork.
The museum has more than 3,500 photos and a large collection of negatives from the Sprauer Studio including 10,000 identified negatives and 20,000 unidentified negatives.
The museum’s John J. Fierst Library and Archives includes a library of 3,500 books, pamphlets, magazines, selected newspapers, and newspaper clippings.
The archives consist of 3,000 unpublished materials such as documents, manuscripts, videotapes, personal papers, maps, and music collections.