The museum features a combination of exhibit areas, including the Shawnee Room,where visitors can learn about some of the earliest residents of Old Independence from a docent/interpreter. A video presentation gives a further sense of the Shawnee interaction with traders and settlers who moved into the region. Artifacts and scenery give visitors to the room a chance to go back in time and visit the region's Native Americans.

The orientation exhibit Where the Delta Meets the Ozarks looks at communities, courthouses, kinship and recreation throughout the 12-county area Old Independence Regional Museum serves. One section focuses on history and memory of the Civil War as well. The exhibit tells the story of everyday people in the region – going to work, coming to town, making music, visiting the courthouse - in their everyday activities and decisions – great and small.

A second exhibit Regions on the Move looks at the historical difficulties of travel across the hills and sloughs of the region. This exhibit focuses particularly on the roles of the railroad and the automobile in opening up the area. Special features include replicas of the Missouri Pacific railroad platform in Batesville and of a mid-20^th gas station.

In addition, the museum schedules two to four changing exhibits from its own collections or traveling exhibit programs each year. Check the museum program schedule or call the office for information about these exhibits.

Tours are guided or self-guided, as visitors choose. Exhibits feature interactive elements – audio, pull drawers, scrapbooks, and other objects – that allow both adults and children to explore historical materials at their own pace.