Stories and artifacts in the "Museum of Fabulosity" is seen June 4, 2025 at the Guichelaar Gallery, Tube Factory Artspace in Indianapolis. (Alaina Davis )
Some may recognize Indianapolis as the “Racing Capital of the World,” or with the NBA Finals, home to the Indiana Pacers. But regardless of the acclaim sports has brought to the city, one thing Indianapolis isn’t known as is weird.
Enter former Indianapolis Star reporter Will Higgins, who found his niche in the quirky side of history during his journalism career. He has created a pop-up exhibit containing 17 stories of compelling individuals and unusual incidents from Indianapolis.
The pop-up exhibit, called the “Museum of Fabulosity,” will be open from June 6 to July 20 at the Guichelaar Gallery, Tube Factory Artspace in Indianapolis.
“What you see here is the history of Indianapolis from around 1904 until 2000, the history of Indianapolis that you won't see anywhere else, and it's certainly not in the history books. It's not being taught anywhere,” Higgins said. “It's the weird side of this city.”
All the stories in the exhibit Higgins researched and wrote himself, though not all the artifacts are the real ones. The point of the exhibit is to reveal and share 17 peculiar stories.
For example, author Kurt Vonnegut smoked around one million Pall Mall cigarettes in his life, which Higgins says accounts for 8.8 percent of his life. Then there’s Morris Lynn Johnson who robbed at least three dozen banks and escaped prison three times. A “10-Most-Wanted” poster describes Johnson as having “blue (unusually vivid blue)” eyes.
There’s also Elfrieda Mais, named the “world’s championship lady driver,” known for the daredevil stunt of wing-walking on airplanes and driving a racecar through a flaming wall of wood. Being a woman, she wasn’t allowed to officially race but would drive a few laps around the track before the main event setting record times.
“The idea of her, of a woman back in the 1930s choosing adventure over security, I think, is cool and should be celebrated,” Higgins said.
Higgins has been attending museums all his life and his love for them went into creating the “Museum of Fabulosity.” His belief: The smaller, the stranger and more random the museum, the better it is.
