MCHS

Exhibits

made in madison county

This is our largest exhibit, and it features those products and commercial items made in Madison County in the last 140 years. Many businesses and industries came to this locality because natural gas was discovered here in 1887.

Enticed by free energy and inexpensive land, manufacturers and supportive businesses stampeded into the Hoosier farmland along White River. The county changed from an agricultural to an industrial based economy: from farms to factories. Glass producers were some of the first to arrive—everything from plate glass for windows to heavy glass for bottling to fine hand-crafted cut glass for the home. Ceramics, tile, boxes/containers, carriages, wagons, metal-working, and some of the first automobile producers followed. Between 1880 and 1900, Madison County gained 43,000 people!

Aladdin lamps

In the late 19th century, the Aladdin company produced beautiful oil/kerosene lamps for the home and office. As electrical power transformed the world, the company transformed their lamps to that energy base and followed the fashionable design styles in the 20th century: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern. The large Aladdin display in the Made in Madison County room continues to draw appreciative visitors.

The National Association of Aladdin Lamp Collectors (NAALC)

...has a mutually beneficial partnership with the Madison County Historical Society (MCHS). As of October 2022, the MCHS’s Museum of Madison County History houses the NAALC’s collection of over 300 Aladdin lamps and their accessories, which were made primarily in Alexandria. The association’s lamps and the society’s make this combined collection the largest in the country.

the g. i. sellers company

The G.I. Sellers Company

was relocated in 1905 to a furniture factory in Elwood so that the business could focus on producing “Hoosier” stand-alone kitchen cabinets.

Called “Hoosier” because so many makers of this design were from Indiana, Sellers cabinets became one of the top producers in the country, churning out around 80,000 a year.

Seller's stand- alone

cabinet design was very popular in the first third of the 20th century when many kitchens did not have cabinets hung on walls like in the present day.

cut glass

Wright Rich Cut Glass...

was made in Anderson by Thomas Wright from 1904 to 1915.

Part of the American Brilliant Period in the decorative arts for the home, cut glass was used as service pieces on the dining tables, desks, and vanity counters of the very rich and powerful.

Still highly prized and collectible, hand-crafted cut glass is often considered a form of art glass. The Museum of Madison County History has one of the largest collections in the country.

Learn More

about Madison County's decorative glass history

Pennsylvania Glass Company
St. Clair Art Glass
Sterling Glass Company

Lippincott Glass Chimney Factory
Model Glass Company
Macbeth-Evans Glass Company

at Madison County Historical Society

The Made in Madison County exhibit also includes more modern businesses that have a national or even international market.

Todd Whisman, Saddle Maker

Todd was born in Lapel...

and graduated from Lapel High School. He started hand crafting western saddles as a business in 1995 at his family farm in southwestern Madison County. His reputation as a master saddle maker spread quickly, and by the fall of that year, and for two succeeding years, he was chosen to make the trophy saddles for the three divisional championships at the Indiana High School Rodeo.

He gained a national and international reputation for fine hand-made, “from the tree up,” rodeo, trail, and working saddles, selling to Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand as well as across the U.S. Whisman saddles are defined by one word: “QUALITY.”

Madison County Businesses

still operating and selling to international markets

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