It was installed in 1917 at an amusement park near the White River in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it remained until the building housing it collapsed in 1956.

No space had been allocated for the display of such a large exhibit in the museum's planned new building, which meant some re-designing was necessary to allow its installation on the fifth floor.

As restored, the carousel is 42 feet (13 meters) wide and has a total of 42 animals, including – as well as the usual horses – goats, giraffes, deer, a lion, and a tiger.

[6] The carousel was commissioned by William Hubbs,[3] who had it installed in White City Amusement Park in 1917.

Built on a Mangel-Illions mechanism, it used animals carved by the Dentzel carousel company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime before 1900.

[9]Between 1917 and 1938 the carousel was located near the White City park pool, in an enclosed building with numerous large windows.

[11] The park district does not appear to have moved the carousel after taking over in 1945, as a 1955 newspaper article noted it was still in the same spot it had occupied for 38 years.

[13] In 1965 The Children's Museum of Indianapolis,[1] then located in a building at 30th and Meridian Streets,[3] acquired two horses from the carousel.

[1] Mildred Compton, the museum director, had seen the carousel in Broad Ripple Park before 1952, and hoped to secure the surviving animals, but the park district was initially unwilling to part with more than two, as the district was using five or six animals in the annual Christmas displays at Monument Circle.

Compton obtained real horse tails from an Indianapolis slaughterhouse to replace the lost originals.

Columns required in the original layout were removed to allow the carousel's installation on the fifth floor.

[3] While plans were under way to secure funding for the restoration of the carousel, efforts were made to find some missing animals.

By studying old photographs of the carousel, it was determined there had been three deer or stags which had not been found in the park district storage building.

An anonymous tip received in December 1973 revealed the deer were used in the annual Christmas Gift and Hobby Show, where they served as escorts for Santa Claus.

A Wurlitzer carousel organ, which had belonged to an amusement park in San Francisco, was added.

Before it was installed in the Children's Museum, the organ was refurbished and rebuilt[1] by Carval Stoots of Plainfield, Indiana, in 1976.

[3] An artist from Pennsylvania recreated the upper outside panels in the style of the carousels of the period around the time of World War I.

The Von Steins were experienced with other types of museum conservation work, but had never restored carousel animals.

[3] The original engine propelling the carousel was a belt-driven mechanism, but after the initial restoration it was exchanged for a fluid drive provided by the Kissell Brothers Amusement Rides company of Cincinnati, Ohio,[f] who suggested the platform for the carousel be improved.

The animals are removed one at a time from the carousel for routine maintenance and refurbishment, which is carried out in the museum's own shops.