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    T.C. Steele State Historic Site

    5.0 (9 reviews)
    Closed Closed
    Updated 2 months ago

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    Garden
    Kathleen F.

    Very impressed with this historic site! I've visited Nashville many, many times and had no idea that it existed. The grounds are extensive and well maintained. This visitor's center is modern and quite nice. The restroom was clean. Tours are at set times so check the website.

    Living Room filled with books, paintings, and antiques
    Ken N.

    When an unexpected warm weather day occurred in February, I headed south to Brown County, just a short driving distance south west of Nashville to the TC Steele State Historic Site. This 211 acre home and nature preserve was the location where Indiana's most famous painter spent much of his last 20 years living and finding subject matter for his landscape paintings. In 1907, Steele had this home built as a summer studio and living quarters for himself and his second wife Selma. While Steele painted, his new wife took it upon herself to adapt to the isolation of living on a rural hill top without running water (buckets of water were originally hauled by the neighbor boys who made the daily 2 mile trek!) and transformed a wilderness into a place that could be beautifully landscaped and become self-sustaining. Note: For anyone who wants to know more about the biography of TC & Selma Steele, I recommend "The House of the Singing Winds" which has the writings of both Steele and Selma, and Wilber D. Peat. The grounds are open to be explored at no cost, but for anyone who is interested in viewing Steele's Large Studio (filled with dozens of Steele paintings) and the House of the Singing Winds, you will need to stop in the office and sign up for a tour. I was fortunate to be the only one on my tour at 10:15, so I got a private tour and was able to take lots of photos of the site AND the paintings. While I waited for the tour to begin, I explored the gift shop where they have lots of Steele inspired items and prints. I especially thought the bowls turned from the Big Black Oak which Steele painted in several of his pieces were cool. Unfortunately, the Big Black Oak fell a couple years ago and wiped out the north entrance to the site, so I had to drive a little farther to the south entrance to park. Fortunately, the south entrance is closer to the home and studio. My tour guide took me to the Large Studio first. This barn-like structure features large north windows that let a ton of light into the building without causing large shadows that could affect the look of the painting. Steele often painted landscapes on site, but also used photographs and his memory to capture details and the feeling of the sites he visited. Within the Large Studio, the paintings hang on the other three walls and are grouped in relative chronological order. The east wall is from his early period and features many portraits and the time in Munich where he lived for five years studying in the schools there to develop his style and talent. The south wall has paintings from Brookville and his trip to the far west (post death of his first wife). The west wall is mainly landscapes from the Brown County and Bloomington years. The changes in style are quite significant between the east and west wall. The west wall is vibrant with color while the Munich days were muted because of the influence of his teachers wanting the students to paint dark and muted colors as inspired by Rembrandt. The House of the Singing Winds is the frequently expanded home where Steele and Selma lived. Steele designed the home without any input of his fiance, so there were some definite problems like a kitchen with no room for cabinets and a flue with too many twists that made the kitchen intolerably hot and smoky when the ash would clog the flue. Most of the home renovation has been completed with just one area in the back awaiting attention. Nearly all the furnishings are those owned by the couple. Selma could have made life easier for herself by selling off Steele's property when he passed away in 1926. But she managed to find ways to keep most of the belongings and then turn them over to the State as a tribute to her husband and to a way of life that has significant history for our state. If you are looking for a getaway in Brown County, why not go here and avoid the large crowds at the other state park. There are several trails that are free to explore and some views that inspired the greatest painter in our state's history. Review #230

    Danny K.

    This place is a real gem! Gardens and hardscaped stone stairways, frog ponds, trickling streams, guided tours, plein air setups and a story area for kids. What's not to love?!

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    Wonderlab Museum of Science Health & Technology - Top of the grapevine

    Wonderlab Museum of Science Health & Technology

    4.5(33 reviews)
    10.4 mi

    Since the Hoosiers did so well this year NATIONAL CHAMPIONS I thought of a great place in…read moreBloomington. The Wonderlab!!! It's a nice sized science of wonders in my opinion. They have a bubble room! It's awesome. A place where you can parachute little figure people over and over again. Shoot I laid down on a bed of nails once here. They have a huge climbing vine that you can climb all the way up to the second floor. But, you have to climb back down it doesn't exit on that floor. They have a cool water science area for kids complete with rain gear - which is optional do what you want ha. It's just a cool place. It's not too big and it's not too small. It the perfect sized science museum. They have the coolest gift shop! I still have my Wonderlab water bottle from years ago. If you've never been make a day of it!

    Tucked in amidst the buildings step into this wonderland for kids to explore science. All sorts of…read moreexperiments and things to learn, places to climb and things to do. Good for all ages! There is even a gate enclosure for toddlers to play separately.The older ones,even adults, will enjoy seeing what it's like to be laying on a bed of nails! It is a very busy place however so do keep an eye on your littles as they may feel the desire to walk to the next activity without you! If this were closer then I believe we'd take my grandkids more often, but it makes an excuse for a little road trip, although I'm always easily persuaded to be on the go!

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    Wonderlab Museum of Science Health & Technology
    Wonderlab Museum of Science Health & Technology - Train table

    Train table

    Wonderlab Museum of Science Health & Technology - Bed of Nails R n R

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    Bed of Nails R n R

    Monroe's Bill Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum - Individual stalls with dressing areas.

    Monroe's Bill Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum

    3.0(2 reviews)
    9.5 mi

    Fans of bluegrass and traditional country music will love this place. I am that, and had an amazing…read moretime connecting with some of my favorite musicians through their stuff. The museum is fairly humble in terms of size and displays. Don't expect any new-fangled interactive digital kiosks to entice the young 'uns to start mandolin lessons. Still, it is four or five rooms of bluegrass cool. The costume, instrument, and poster collections are the real highlights in the museum. The cabin just outside the museum and the festival/camping grounds are also worth seeing. If my memory is correct, the admission fee for the museum was $4 per adult. The lady at the desk / museum store cash register was friendly and knowledgeable. Since there were no events going on in the festival grounds, she offered to let us drive around to see the stages, cabins, and an great old touring truck. Before leaving, we spent a half hour and $30 in the museum store. They had lots of great countrified and bluegrass-themed gifts, shirts, books, CDs, etc. Next time I head toward Brown County to see the autumn leaves, I will definitely stop back in. Not that this is what it is all about, but I got more twitter and Facebook mileage out of photos from here than all the trees-on-hills shots put together.

    Camping experience is not as advertised. No wifi, no bathroom or shower facilities .Very…read moredisappointing. Hope the music festival will make this trip worth while

    Photos
    Monroe's Bill Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum - Super clean showers

    Super clean showers

    Monroe's Bill Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum - Bill Monroe's old truck

    Bill Monroe's old truck

    Monroe's Bill Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum - Main stage

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    Main stage

    Glenn A Black Laboratory Of Archaeology - general museum space

    Glenn A Black Laboratory Of Archaeology

    4.0(1 review)
    9.9 mi

    After finishing a trip to the Mathers Museum of World Culture, my wife and I selected a doorway…read morethat leads to the museum portion of the IU Archaeology department. They share the same building and although there is a separate entrance from the outside, we found it easiest to simply go through the doorway. Note that we didn't see anyone monitoring the museum during our visit, so we just browsed on our own. The museum is part of a larger area which includes a research library and even more exhibits in the central lobby area of the upstairs portion. (Note we did not explore the lower floor which looked off limits.) During our visit, we saw a lot of informational window booths with facts and artifacts that have been gathered from our state. There is a strong connection between this facility and the Angel Mounds in Evansville. There are several displays with information about the Angel Mounds and other mounds which were shaped like snakes, or marching bears. There are also windows with info on artwork inspired by animals, stands showing tribal shields with info, and science facts about animals that have lived in our state. The museum is unique in what it offers, but I understand that it won't appeal to everyone. But considering it is free and puts things into understandable relationships, it does offer value to those who may be interested in local history and/or nature. Review #2205

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    Glenn A Black Laboratory Of Archaeology - Mastodon mandible

    Mastodon mandible

    Glenn A Black Laboratory Of Archaeology - Art related to birds

    Art related to birds

    Glenn A Black Laboratory Of Archaeology - Feb 2019 exhibit

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    Feb 2019 exhibit

    French Lick West Baden Museum

    French Lick West Baden Museum

    4.8(16 reviews)
    42.8 mi

    There's much more to French Lick, Indiana than I had understood and so much of it was spelled out…read morefor me through the displays and exhibits at the museum. Frankly, this museum is much nicer, informative, and engaging than it has any right to be. The very friendly docent on duty welcomed us warmly into the lobby and, after we paid our small admission fee, she took us through everything we needed to know about accessing the audio tour, the basics of the exhibits and I'm sure anything else that we had wanted to know. She was very friendly. The exhibits wind through the building with an early focus on the founding of the town. The major portions of the museum, however, are devoted to the flashier aspects that really shine of this small burg in the Midwest: the circus and laxative waters! Massive exhibits are devoted to the sulfur water that was an early cure-all which gave rise to the large spas that drove tourism to town. The most square footage is devoted to the huge, massive, enormous circus in miniature. My partner is all about miniatures and was totally engrossed in this display. And rightfully so; it is very impressive! Everything was above average for cleanliness, order, and functionality; which, if you've visited other small-town museums, you know isn't always the case. I left having a much greater appreciation for the town and its history!

    This is NOT a holiday inn, it is truly a RESORT. The word luxurious only begins to describe the…read moreresort. Well worth EVERY dollar

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    French Lick West Baden Museum
    French Lick West Baden Museum
    French Lick West Baden Museum - Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Diorama

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    Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Diorama

    Monroe County History Center

    Monroe County History Center

    4.0(2 reviews)
    10.1 mi

    Nice historical society with some solid exhibits. They do a nice job of portraying the history of…read morethe county and have some interesting exhibits that rotate. One thing I was disappointed in was a lack of Hoagy Carmichael representation, since their archive has a bunch of items in relation to him, including pieces of clothing. The only mention of Hoagy I found on exhibit was part of a little exhibit on famous musicians from the county. Hoagy was further down on the list and you had to listen to a bunch of other snippets before you could get to him. I expected him to be more prominent in this location. I really liked that they had reasonably priced gift shop and a really nice selection of used books/DVDs/sheet music, etc. While the exhibit wasn't doing much in the way of Hoagy, I picked up some really nice used items in relation to him.

    This local-focused, self-sustaining non-profit is a great find! The Center offers a museum,…read moreresearch library, and gift store. There are many special event throughout the year and the exhibits refresh often. The building is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and the volunteers who work there are amazing. The grounds are beautiful. Museum Admission: $2 adults, $1 children, under 5 Free (most special events are free) Parking: street or one of the parking garages located 3 blocks away Food: none Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard

    Photos
    Monroe County History Center - Rose Hill Cemetery Limestone Tour

    Rose Hill Cemetery Limestone Tour

    Monroe County History Center - Black Authors Speak! Author Panel and Public Book Fair

    Black Authors Speak! Author Panel and Public Book Fair

    Monroe County History Center - Be sure to touch the provided bear fur on the info rail!

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    Be sure to touch the provided bear fur on the info rail!

    T.C. Steele State Historic Site - landmarks - Updated July 2026

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