Going to the Indiana State Fairgrounds was part of an effort from 1922-1924 by the Riley Memorial Association (now the Riley Children’s Foundation) to promote and raise funds to build Riley Hospital for Children. Events at the fairgrounds, including the Indiana State Fair, provided opportunities to help people from across the state learn more about why a children’s hospital was important and what kinds of services and care it would provide.
When the James Whitcomb Riley Home first opened to the public on April 13, 1922, a campaign to raise $2 million to build the hospital was launched. Five weeks later, the Riley Memorial Association had the perfect opportunity to promote the hospital to crowds of mothers, fathers and children who came to James Whitcomb Riley Day on May 20 during the Indiana Health Exposition at the Fairgrounds in 1922. Amid the child-friendly activities offered throughout the day, the association put plans and color drawings of the proposed hospital and a large portrait of James Whitcomb Riley on display and presented a lineup of speakers who talked about the need for a children’s hospital.
Later that summer, the RMA sponsored a statewide contest to engage artists of all ages to design posters to be used to help raise funds to build Riley Hospital. The winning entries were announced, and all poster contest entries were put on display at the RMA’s exhibit at the 1922 Indiana State Fair (Sept. 4-9). Winning posters were used in the campaign from Oct. 1-7, 1922, to raise funds to build Riley Hospital.
At the 1923 Indiana State Fair, Indiana University’s exhibit included a display of personal effects of James Whitcomb Riley shown in conjunction with a Riley Hospital for Children exhibit demonstrating the types of treatment that would be given to Indiana’s children with disabilities. Children who were being treated at Long Hospital for curvature of the spine, club feet and other orthopedic conditions were brought onsite to the University Building to demonstrate to fairgoers a “workout” in an orthopedic gymnasium constructed on the porch stage of the building. Beatrice O’Hare, in charge of the “corrective” gymnasium at Long Hospital and who would later come to Riley to oversee the Ball Gymnasium in the new hospital, oversaw these demonstrations.
At the 1924 Indiana State Fair, Riley Hospital for Children had prominent exhibition space and included drawings of the partially completed hospital buildings. Photographs illustrating the progress in construction since the first shovel of dirt was turned were shown in the exhibit space, and a large color drawing gave a comprehensive look at the magnitude of the institution. A card of general invitation was displayed, extending to all visitors at the State Fair an invitation to go to Riley Hospital and inspect the building.
The formal opening of Riley Hospital was less than five weeks away – Oct. 7, 1924. During the week preceding the opening, “Fair Chance for Childhood” souvenir bonds were offered statewide to subscribers all over Indiana who donated to the hospital building fund to help meet current and future construction costs. These bonds, which were not redeemable, were merely an acknowledgement by the Riley Memorial Association of the voluntary subscription to the hospital building fund. The bond, which was a facsimile of the usual form of negotiable paper, was designed to be a keepsake, to be cherished by the purchaser as evidence of his or her contribution to an institution dedicated to the care of Indiana’s children.
The Indiana State Fair has continued to be a part of Riley Hospital’s history. At the 1927 Indiana State Fair, Riley Hospital’s Occupational Therapy Department, equipped and supported by the Junior League of Indianapolis, had a booth at the fair that displayed baskets and fabrics made by young patients as part of their therapy. In September 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt was in Indianapolis and visited Riley Hospital’s hydrotherapy pool used at the time primarily to help in the rehabilitation of patients with polio. After his visit to the hospital, the president’s car took off to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, where President Roosevelt provided remarks to officially open the 1936 Indiana State Fair.
--Compiled by the Riley Hospital Historic Preservation Committee; photos provided by Indiana State Library and Indiana State Archives
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