200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
The Museum is closed until further notice due to lack of staffing.
200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
The Stevenson-Ives Library contains more than 15,000 books and periodicals with a focus on McLean County and Central Illinois history and genealogy.
The Museum's Archive features a wide-range of primary and secondary source material relating to the history of McLean County, from the 1820s to the present
The nearly 20,000 objects preserved at the Museum document the growth and development of McLean County from the prehistoric period through the present.
Detailed inventories of archival collections in the Museum.
City directories are an invaluable local history resource. Directories from 1855-1902 have been digitized and posted to the Internet Archive!
See what books we have in our library. We are a non-circulating library so you must come to the library to see these books.
Click here to access over 100,000 digitized images in the Illinois Digital Archives database.
Images in this collection include clubs, schools, parades, sports, service organizations, government, and medicine in McLean County.
Thousands of images of the built environment, from the earliest cabins to construction of homes in the 21st century.
Biographies of past Evergreen Cemetery Walk characters.
Digitized by the Internet Archive and Library of Congress
This 5-volume series debuted in late December 1950. It contains 171 articles by 132 authors pertaining to local history!
Recently digitized and made available during the coronavirus pandemic
An alternative newspaper run collectively by volunteers. It ran for 32 years, the longest continuous publication run for any underground newspaper in America.
Digitized menus donated by Larry Carius, author of the popular Bloomington-Normal Restaurant Scene page on Facebook
A Google Doc containing links to various local Black history resources such as articles, podcasts, videos, finding aids, images, and more!
Discover local historic images pinned to a map, some overlaid into Google Street View!
Museum staff column in the Sunday Pantagraph. Catch them in print or find them here!
Lesson plans based on Bill Kemp's articles in the Pantagraph.
Resources on genealogy in McLean County and beyond.
Bloomington to Peoria Interurban Railroad Line
Before the Civil War, fugitive slaves journeyed northward to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
The Bloomington-Normal Black History Project was founded in 1982 and its collections span the 19th and 20th centuries.
Just after midnight on June 19, 1900, a great fire began sweeping through much of the city's downtown...
Digitized menus donated by Larry Carius, author of the popular Bloomington-Normal Restaurant Scene page on Facebook
Digital Reproduction Policy
Addresses use of digital cameras and personal scanners in Library/Archives
Fees - Personal Use
If you want our staff to scan an image from our Archives for personal use, see this document.
Fees - Commerical Use
If you want our staff to scan an image from our Archives for commercial use, see this document.