If you've visited the McLean County Museum of History anytime in the last 33 years, you've experienced the creative genius of Susan Hartzold.
Serving as Curator of Exhibits and Collections for the last three decades, Susan has curated nearly 50 exhibits for the Museum – ranging in topic from Lincoln to Vietnam, fashion trends to foodways, oddities, and everything in between. She's created spaces for people from all walks of life and from all over the world to reflect and learn something new at the McLean County Museum of History.
But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
Susan announced to the staff earlier this month that it is time to retire – to "reorient her life," as she put it. She's excited to spend more time on the lake, traveling with her family, hiking, photographing birds, and creating art in her home studio alongside her husband, Andrew Jumonville.
Susan grew up in rural McLean County, one of eight children on the Hartzold family farmstead in Danvers. She attended Illinois State University and earned her B.A. in Art. While at ISU, one of her professors, Naomi Whiting Towner, connected her with the McLean County Historical Society as an intern.
Susan finished her degree in 1982 and went on to live in New York and North Carolina. While visiting home in the summer of 1991, she once again helped the Museum as preparations were underway for the move from the McBarnes Building on Grove Street into the courthouse. It was then that the opportunity to join the staff presented itself. She eagerly accepted the position and facilitated the move into the Museum's current home, along with the help of other staff and volunteers, in 1991.
Susan's first exhibit at the Museum, Freewheeling Into the 20th Century, opened in 1992. It explored the history and development of bicycles, with 26 examples and three-sided mat board panels she created by hand because "well, we didn't have a modular panel system yet!" Susan said, chuckling.
During her tenure, she's faced monumental challenges head-on, made lots of choices, and created copious amounts of change – including bringing the Museum’s collection into the twentieth century, transitioning thousands of object records from catalog cards to a digital database.
On top of collections care, Susan was often tasked with juggling multiple exhibits simultaneously. She worked with guest curators and exhibit committees all the while managing each exhibit's development, budget, research, writing, designing, and construction.
In 2013, the Museum began an extensive remodel of all its permanent exhibits. Susan led the charge to create five new exhibits, reusing about 80% of the original permanent exhibits' platforms, panels, and build materials.
In 2019, the Illinois Association of Museums honored Susan with the Award of Distinction Lifetime Professional Achievement. The City of Bloomington also honored her later that year with a proclamation from the City Council on December 16, recognizing her 28 years of service.
Three of her exhibits, It has Begun: Central Illinois in the Civil War, Journey through the Great Depression, and A Turbulent Time: Perspectives of the Vietnam War, won the prestigious national AASLH Award of Merit.
Susan’s accolades don’t even begin to encapsulate the incredible woman she is, and the stalwart colleague she has been. The McLean County Museum of History is what it is today because of her dedication and innovation. We are grateful for her 33 years of service and wish her a happy, peaceful, and rewarding retirement.
Help us celebrate this “reorientation” by submitting your congratulatory messages here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjz3oP9638En2BWww6iseJ9R7ciBA6aYwDFfgpHbzpWhvhAA/viewform?usp=sharing
Chronological List of Exhibits Curated by Susan
A Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County (2023)
The Merwin Gallery: A Rotating Object Display Space (2022)
Pedal Power (2018-2020)
Challenges, Choices, & Change: A Community in Conflict (2019)
Challenges, Choices, & Change: Working for a Living (2018)
Challenges, Choices, & Change: Farming in the Great Corn Belt (2017)
Abraham Lincoln in McLean County (2016)
Challenges, Choices, & Change: Making A Home (2016)
Fiesta! A Celebration of Mexican Popular Art (2012-14)
The Greening of the Prairie: Immigration and Settlement of the Irish in McLean County (2012)
A Passion For Detail: The Architectural Legacy of A.L. Pillsbury (2010-2012)
Treasures from the Stevenson House (2010)
Courthouse Architecture (2009)
Come & Get It! The Way We Ate 1830-2008 (2009-2012)
Prologue to Presidency: Abraham Lincoln on the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit (2009)*
*on display at the David Davis Mansion, not the McLean County Museum of History
The Unconquerable: Photos and History of the Kickapoo Indians (2008-2009)
Gifts to the Prairie: The Work of Pioneer Nurserymen and the Art of the Prestele Family (2008)
A Turbulent Time: Perspectives of the Vietnam War (2008-2011)
Oddities!—Or Not? (2006)
Presence, Pride & Passion: A History of African Americans in McLean County (2006-2008)
Headlines & Footnotes: Hats & Shoes from the collection of the McLean County Historical Society (2005)
Journey Through the Great Depression (2004-2007)
Prairie Thunder: 80 years of Railroad Photography (2006)
Details of Architecture in Downtown Bloomington (2004-2005)
Rediscovery: The Art of Withers Library (2004)
From Childhoods Past: 19th and 20th Century Toys (2003-2004)
Adlai! The Life and Times of Adlai E. Stevenson II (2002-2004)
9/11: McLean County Responds (2002)
To Sustain the Union: Central Illinois in the Civil War (2001)
Growing Up in the Fifties (2001)
Lincoln Slept Here? Connecting to Greatness (2000)
Made In McLean County: A History of Manufacturing in McLean County (1999)
A Turn of the Earth (1999)
Rituals & Passages: 75 Years of the American Passion Play (1998)
Just Corn: The “Amaizing” Story (1997)
Flaming Youth: The Flapper and the Roaring Twenties (1996)
Route 66: Goin' Somewhere (1996)
A Matter of Life and Death (1995)
Heartland Home Front: McLean County in WWII (1994)
America's Fight For Democracy: U.S. Uniforms & Military Equipment in WWII (1994)
With the Greatest of Ease... Bloomington’s Artists of the Trapeze (1994)
Promenade Through The Park (1993)
The Popular Paisley Pattern (1993)
Heads & Tales: Portraits and Stories of McLean County’s Early Settlers (1992)
Beneath the Patterns: Quilts from the collection of Harriet Fuller Rust and the McLean County Historical Society (1993)
What's That Coming Down The Line... The Railroad in the American Mind (1992)
Freewheeling Into the 20th Century (1992)
45 exhibits, 33 years, one incredible woman.
