On December 11, 1816, Indiana became the 19th state admitted to the Union. Originally there were just 15 counties concentrated in the southern part of the state, but five more counties were added within weeks of the state’s birthday.

With the Treaty of St. Mary’s in 1818, several native tribes including the Miami ceded 7.5 million acres of land to the United States government.

More than 20 counties would be carved out of that acquisition, including Bartholomew County.

Columbus is an improbable town. Every year thousands of visitors arrive to explore its streets and study its buildings, for it is one of the rare places on earth where the idea that architecture can improve the human condition has been put to the test. It’s a small, southern Indiana community with no apparent call to destiny that, remarkably, became an architectural “mecca.”

The Columbus art and architecture collection features some of the biggest names in modern art and architecture.

”Columbus, Indiana, and J. Irwin Miller are almost holy words in architectural circles,”  New York Times‘ architecture critic Paul Goldberger, said.

The story begins with the leadership of a family with a vision and a program rooted in the words of Winston Churchill: “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”