Richmond is a small city in eastern Indiana, the county seat of Wayne County, founded by Quakers from North Carolina who settled along the Whitewater Gorge in the early nineteenth century. It sits on the old National Road (US 40), the first federally funded highway, which brought a steady flow of pioneers heading west.
The town has two genuinely notable claims to fame. The Levi Coffin House in nearby Fountain City was the most important station on the Underground Railroad — Coffin and his wife are estimated to have helped over 2,000 escaped slaves reach freedom. And Gennett Records, a studio in the Whitewater Gorge, was where some of the earliest jazz recordings were made in the 1920s — Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael all recorded here. The Gennett Walk of Fame marks the site.
Richmond also has a surprisingly good pair of museums. The Wayne County Historical Museum holds pioneer artefacts, an Egyptian mummy, and locally manufactured automobiles. The Richmond Art Museum has a strong collection of American Impressionists and the Hoosier Group of Indiana painters. The Whitewater Gorge Trail and Cardinal Greenway offer pleasant walking and cycling. Earlham College, the Quaker liberal arts college on the west side of the city, is worth a walk through the campus.