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Local Product

Articles

5 items

Electric cars sparked local interest long before Rivian
The startling success of electric automaker Rivian has shined an international spotlight on Blo...

Article

lithograph of bee hive

Honeybees sweetened 19th century life in Central Illinois
In November 1887, a poor local honey harvest led The Pantagraph to predict scarce inventories a...

Article

Local tractor company never gained traction
“More from the soil, with less toil” was the promise of the Illinois Tractor Co., which for a f...

Article

through the haze there is a crumbled brick building, some fascade still stands but most of the brick building is rubble on the ground.

Portable Elevator plant closed in 1987
In the spring of 2018, Canadian agricultural equipment manufacturer Brandt Industries began ass...

Article

WW I home front featured French-Belgian relief
The War to End All Wars, as the First World War was once called, brought out the best and the w...

Article

Blog

2 items

McHistory: A Bloomington Huckster’s best-selling medicine was Blackberry Balsam
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: George Hoagland’s ‘Oil of Gladness’
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Farming in the Great Corn Belt

2 items

New Technology: Computers
In the 1970s, area farmers began to use computer technology to improve yields and profits....

Digital Exhibit

Tractors Replace Animal Labor
As tractors became more affordable, McLean County farmers began to replace their animal labor....

Digital Exhibit

Finding Aids

5 items

American Foundry and Furnace Company Collection (Soper Foundry)
Soper Foundry (then known as Flagg Foundry) began in Bloomington in 1874, producing gray iron c...

Finding Aid

Beich Collection
Born in Wehlau, East Prussia in 1864, Paul Frank Beich received his early education at Culm whe...

Finding Aid

Cornett, Roseanna Eureka Williams
The Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Company was started in 1909 by John Wardell and located in Detroit, M...

Finding Aid

Eureka Williams Electrolux
Charles U. Williams came to Bloomington in the late nineteenth century. He was an itinerant pho...

Finding Aid

Exhibit: Made in McLean County
The McLean County Museum of History presented this exhibit in 1999. This collection contains th...

Finding Aid

Research

1 item

Post Amerikan
Held by the MCMH and digitized by Eastern Illinois University. The Post Amerikan began publicat...

Article