It is located at 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana in the United Northwest Area neighborhood of the city.

[2][3] Founded in 1925 by Mary Stewart Carey with the help of Indianapolis civic leaders and organizations, it is the fourth-oldest such institution in the world.

The museum hosts thousands of activities annually, including plays at the Lilly Theater, classes and workshops for school children, traveling exhibits, and fund-raising events.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis was founded in 1925 by Mary Stewart Carey, a wealthy civic patron who owned the Stewart-Carey Glass Company.

[4] Carey began a campaign to start a children's museum in Indianapolis and enlisted the aid of other local civic leaders and the Progressive Teacher's Association.

Carey sought a larger facility and after two moves, she finally located the museum in her own mansion on Meridian Street in 1926.

She successfully created partnerships with other museums who loaned exhibits of Native American artifacts in 1947 and a gallery of dinosaur skeletons in 1949.

The mummy Wenuhotep was given on permanent loan from the University of Chicago in 1959, a nineteenth-century log cabin was donated in 1961, and the Hall of Man was added in 1962.

She created the first long-term financial plans for the museum by establishing an endowment and began advertising campaigns for donations and to increase attendance.

[7] A fundraising drive held in 1973 raised $8.7 million and allowed construction of the current museum building.

Finished in 1976, the new museum had modern conservation and storage facilities, classrooms, the 350-seat Ruth Allison Lilly Theater, and a much larger five-floor exhibit area.

New exhibits and attractions were added for the grand opening, including a carousel, a simulated cavern, and a mastodon skeleton.

"[19] It was cited by the New York Times as an example of a cultural institution that is ensuring awareness of the need to accommodate visitors with sensory issues is built in from the start of an exhibition's design.

[20] The museum employed a Wikipedian in Residence, appointed in August 2011,[21] and has some QRpedia codes posted for visitors to read Wikipedia articles about objects in the collection, translated into their preferred language.

The National Geographic: Treasures of the Earth exhibit, which includes three areas, is located on the Lower Level of the museum and was first opened on June 11, 2011.

The Beyond Spaceship Earth gallery opened in 2016 and is about technology and daily life of NASA's space stations, as well as featuring an Indiana Astronaut Wall of Fame.

Gallery features an 11,000-pound (5,000 kg) steam engine designed by Reuben Wells in 1868 to conquer Indiana's Madison Hill.

[25] On the main floor/ground level, the museum has the Welcome Center with adult and juvenile Brachiosaur sculptures climbing into the front.

A focal point of the ground level of the museum is North America's largest water clock, created by French physicist and artist Bernard Gitton.

[28] During the latest expansion in 2009, this space was moved to the second floor outside of the skywalk which links the parking garage to the main building.

The purpose of the Power of Children is to create a supportive environment where people can examine and discuss issues related to prejudice and discrimination and seek solutions to these problems.

Historically accurate, immersive environments are recreated to reflect the place where each of the children spent their lives.

The gallery has sounds, dramatic lighting, quotations, interactives, and moving images to draw visitors into the exhibit.

Children may build toy boats to float along the waterway, play in a construction zone, erect an arch, climb a rock wall, crawl through tunnels, observe a live pond, and participate in other activities.

Dinosphere features a sound and light experience that simulates a day in the late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago.

The exhibit features several species of dinosaurs including Hypacrosaurus, Prenoceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Gorgosaurus, Maiasaura, Bambiraptor, Oviraptor, and Dracorex hogwartsia.

From February 2021 to March 2022, the museum closed the Dinosphere for renovations as part of its Mission Jurassic initiative.