Dan Quayle Center and Museum

Everyone rolled their eyes when I suggested this as a stop on our recent road trip between Lafayette and Fort Wayne but my 13 year old son and 66 year old mother found it much more interesting than expected. We learned a lot of cool stuff about VPs. While they had memorabilia from all the VPs, it was mostly newspaper and documents though so my 9 year, who didn’t want to just walk around reading, found it boring. He did, however, enjoy the set of 6 rubber duckies decorated like presidents (some of who have been VPs) which we got as souvenirs.

This is a well-​run and well-​organized museum with at least one personal/​vintage idem from every vice president. The guy who runs it bears a striking similarity to Dan Quayle himself, but insists that they are not related.
The Dan Quayle memorabilia is fairly extensive (his childhood Christmas cards) and there is quite a bit to learn about him. In fact, there are extensive exhibits for all the post-​WWII vp’s. If you are interested in history, there is a lot to learn here. It is interesting to see a narrative of US history through the veeps.

Continuing my education is a priority I have right up near the top of my To Do list. This museum of history and politics certainly rewarded that personal choice; and additionally it helped me learn about an off the beaten path culture that’s fraught with alienation: the life of the Vice President of the United States of America. And if you’re going to be living on the edge like that, there’s no better place to do that than this part Indiana. Lots of wide open spaces, white clouds, and little traffic.

I’m amazed this museum isn’t a magnet for tourists from liberal Chicago or Columbus with the amount of irony that its name raises. I guess at about 3.5 hours drive from each, it’s not quite close enough in Indiana to really even be on the road trip radar.
Recently the name Dan Quayle has been floating around again in polite conversation (due to a certain other V.P. candidate that bears a striking resemblence to many of his qualities) for the first time since, seemingly, 1992. So perhaps it’s time for everyone to really examine the life and times of Dan Quayle. And this museum devotes its entire second floor to doing just that.
There is not a single iota of jest in the whole thing, though. This museum is the official Dan Quayle Vice-​Presidential Library (oddly enough, it’s the only VP library in the country and it’s devoted to the man who couldn’t spell potato). The curators have lovingly collected artifacts from his early days to his time in the White House.
The highlight of the museum, however, is a life-​sized cutout of Dan Quayle to take a photo with. I can’t fault Huntington, Indiana from celebrating a local boy made good but I found this particular display a bit creepy as it almost stares at you as you walk around the room. But Dan Quayle is such a friendly looking guy that it’s not quite as creepy as if it were, say, Dick Cheney.
The first floor of the museum is devoted to the Vice-​Presidency in general with the theme «second to one.» An informative video loops the history of the office. There’s a wall of Vice-​Presidents (with the shocking statistics of how many of them became President either through succession or being elected on their own) and an collection of memorabilia from most of the former Vice-​Presidents. The museum even, in the interest of equal time, devotes a huge amount of space to Al Gore.
When I went to the museum back in April it was empty except for a local school group. Maybe now it’s doing a more robust business. And perhaps Dan Quayle will make a comeback in 2012 and really put it over the top. The world might just be «ready» again.