A living time machine turns fifty, and the past has never felt this present.
Founded in 1974 by Eli Lilly, Prairietown at Conner Prairie immerses guests in 19th-century Indiana life through trades, foodways, music and daily activities. In 2024, its 50-year legacy is celebrated with a documentary.
Production
Fifty years of archival footage showing interpreters aging in real time.
Direction
Patient observation that trusts mundane craftwork to mesmerize.
Director
Ryan Shank
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Prairietown belongs to a peculiarly American phenomenon: the 'living history' movement that boomed in the 1970s as both escapism from modernity and countercultural rejection of it.
The documentary reportedly includes footage of interpreters breaking character—a rare glimpse behind the fourth wall of historical performance that most museums carefully suppress.
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