Indiana museum toasts region’s days as canning powerhouse

FRANKLIN, Ind. – A central Indiana county that was once a powerhouse in the canning industry is taking a look back at those days in a new exhibit.

Johnson County was Indiana’s top producer of canned goods during the early 20th century. The county just south of Indianapolis boasted an array of canning plants that produced more than 53 million cans of food in 1942 alone.

The new exhibit examining that industry is called “Pick, Peel, Preserve: Canning in Johnson County” and runs through mid-October at the Johnson County Museum of History.

Director David Pfeiffer tells the Daily Journal that the canning industry helped “put Johnson County on the map.”

The county’s J.T. Polk Canning Co. started in a Greenwood kitchen in 1872 and grew to become the largest cannery west of Baltimore.

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Information from: Daily Journal, http://www.dailyjournal.net