- One of my favorites is the safe, harmless atomic bomb toy.

- [Narrator] The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has come up on something quite special this year, their centennial!

That means 100 years of the world's largest children's museum.

To celebrate this moment, the museum has a new exhibit that displays 100 items from the museum's massive collection that help illustrate its history.

- So the exhibit is Memories, Wonders, and Dreams, Stories from 100 Years.

It's our centennial.

And so we chose 100 stories of objects as a way of talking about who we are, where we started, what are the through lines through our history, what are the things we're thinking about for the future.

- It fills one gallery space, but then we've got iconic items like Chihuly's glass tower that's in the central core and our water clock and particular things that we get, you know, where's the polar bear I think I was in a submarine when I was little.

So we have those things, and it was an opportunity to get them out again from storage and put 'em on display.

- [Narrator] Many of these iconic objects have been beloved by the public for years, but how did the museum get its start?

Where did it get its first pieces for display?

- We started with a very simple idea.

Our founder wanted to create an experience where everything was designed for children.

And instead of having objects and cases like a traditional museum, she said, what if we got the materials out of the case and let children touch them?

And she did a kind of a crowdsource funding situation where she did a call out via local elementary schools and said, children, ask your parents if they have anything interesting in their attic or in their basement that we could use to build a first children's museum.

And she collected all those items and put them in a small carriage house that's associated with the Propylaeum.

And that's how the Children's Museum was born.

- [Narrator] The museum began as a collective project created by Mary Stewart Carey in the community of Indianapolis.

This centennial exhibit may display everything from a sculpted alebrije to a first edition Barbie, but it really focuses on the community, the people and stories behind the objects.

- One of the things that's my... One of my favorites is the safe harmless atomic bomb toy.

If you think about it was made in 1955, middle of the Cold War.

And the way we deal with these sort of anxiety ridden things comes out in weird ways.

In this case, kids are buying these safe, harmless atomic bomb toys that you could put a little cap with gunpowder on it and throw it at each other on the sidewalk and it pops, and they could play atomic bomb.

And at the same time, they had to put on the packaging that it's really safe and harmless.

So a parent didn't worry that this was an actual atomic bomb.

So it's things like that.

They have a story about the people that were connected to them that really transcends that little bit of plastic.

We also have things like our polar bear.

And I think when we've asked people to send in photographic memories over the years, so many pictures of little kids who are now big adults standing in front of that polar bear.

So that's another one of my favorite memories that you'll see in the exhibit.

That polar bear, named Martimus, has been part of the museum for nearly 60 years.

A mature male from the Bering Strait, he once weighed over 1,100 pounds and stood more than 9 feet tall.

Martimus first arrived in 1965 on a long-term loan from trustee Harry D. Tousley.

In 1986, he was officially donated to the museum by the Tousley family, and ever since, hes been a beloved icon, quietly watching over generations of children.

- Objects in our collection tell stories.

They're only as good as the story we can tell about them.

It's just an inanimate thing.

But the way it was made, the person who collected it, the person who cherished it when they were a child, the historical events they witnessed, those are those great stories of the objects that really inspire wonder in the person who's looking at the object.

- [Narrator] Memories are what make objects worth conserving.

Anything, even a children's toy can chronicle a history and these objects form new memories with those seeing them for the first time in a museum.

- If you're somebody who grew up in Indianapolis, I hope you see those things that suddenly flash a memory of coming to the museum with your class or your parents when you were a child.

And you have this distinct memory of joy that you had that day when you were at the museum.

And for other people, I hope it inspires them to understand that the objects in their lives also tells stories.

Those things that were inherited from grandma or the things you picked up on a vacation unlock a story.

And that can be a really valuable intergenerational discussion tool and just inspiration for our own lives.

- We think a lot about like, how did we become what we are?

And it's really the people.

Indianapolis allowed us to keep growing and expanding and offer new services and bring new programs online.

And I think when you see it all together in an exhibit like this, you're like, wow, that was a monumental effort.

But it shows you what we can do when we work together.

- [Narrator] The Children's Museum showcases the stories of people, and by doing so, creates memories for over a million visitors every year.

I know I've made some.

As for the next 100 years, we'll just have to wait and see.