Topics | McLean County Museum of History

Articles

3 items

Colonial Theatre once Colfax mainstay

As with most small town movie houses, the Colonial Theatre in Colfax offered area residents mor...

Article

Charles Stephenson Jr., a Central Illinois Art Exposition committee member, eyes several canvasses being readied for hanging.

Depression-era art show one for the ages

In the spring of 1939, area residents flocked to the Bloomington Consistory to gaze upon painti...

Article

Million-dollar cartoonist got start in Bloomington

Although nearly forgotten today, Bloomington-born artist Sid Smith was a towering figure in Ame...

Article

Biographies

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Burnham, Almira Sarah Ives

At the turn of the twentieth century, when the public reception of visual arts in Bloomington, ...

Biography

Howard, Emily

At the turn of the twentieth century, when the public reception of visual arts in Bloomington, ...

Biography

Jackman, Sarah Farnum Sargent

Sarah Farnum Sargent Jackman was born on December 18, 1816 in Boscawen, New Hampshire. She was ...

Biography

Blog

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Artist and Author Visit Bloomington May 1948

Artist Bob Hooton (left) and writer Dan Wickenden, both fresh from an extended stay in the Cent...

Blog Post

Collection Highlight: Trench Art

The Museum owns two unique and personal pieces of history that provide a glimpse of how individ...

Blog Post

Herman Glaser, December 1952 Stanford’s Toy Maker

During the 1952 holiday season Stanford resident and retired farmer Herman Glaser displayed sev...

Blog Post

Lexington Art Show July 1962

Jack Statz and Jann Thompson Anderson served as judges for an art show held in conjunction with...

Blog Post

McHistory: Depression-era post office mural chronicles development of Normal

Blog Post

McHistory: Painter and Scoundrel

Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Museum Dedicating New Mural on 169th Anniversary of Lincoln's Lost Speech

Blog Post

Museum Square Becomes First Site for International Artist EMEMEM's U.S. Debut

If you're walking along the east side of the Museum Square, you might see a glimmer of som...

Blog Post

Events

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Crafting History: Remembering Rag Rugs

Join the McLean County Museum of History and the McLean County Arts Center for the first instal...

Event

Slow Art Day on Route 66

The Museum is excited to join 15 other local arts organizations in celebrating Slow Art Day on ...

Event

Finding Aids

42 items

A Touch of Glass

Terry Garbe established “A Touch of Glass” in 1974 in Bloomington. He moved the business to Nor...

Finding Aid

Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA)

The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA) occupies a site built in 1921 to house Th...

Finding Aid

Bloomington Photographers

This brief collection identifies the early photographers of Bloomington and McLean County begin...

Finding Aid

Bloomington-Normal Black History Project

Finding aid for the 6-box archival collection ...

Finding Aid

Blotters Collection

Before the age of the ballpoint pen, Americans wrote with fountain pens dipped in ink. In the f...

Finding Aid

Brown, James Proctor

James Proctor Brown was born in 1911 in Morristown, Hamblen County, TN, and died in Bloomington...

Finding Aid

Calendar Collection

This collection includes calendars from 1888 to present, most with connections to McLean County...

Finding Aid

Central Illinois Art Exposition, Scottish Rite Temple, March 19 – April 8, 1939

The Central Illinois Art Exposition was possibly the most successful diversion in McLean County...

Finding Aid

Century of Progress Collection

A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as The Chicago World's Fair, wa...

Finding Aid

Circus

Circuses had been visiting the area for many years when around 1875 a small wagon circus came t...

Finding Aid

Corn on the Curb 2000

Corn-on-the-Curb, inspired by Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” in 1999, was conceived by Mayor Judy M...

Finding Aid

Cumpston, Robert

Robert D. “Bob” Cumpston (1930-2018) was born, lived and died on his family’s farm near Colfax,...

Finding Aid

Ensign, Preston Poster

Preston Ensign, 1912 - 2006, graduated from University High School and Illinois State Normal Un...

Finding Aid

Euleo Puppets

Sisters Eunice Speer and Leona S. Pitzer organized a puppet theatre in the late 1960s and named...

Finding Aid

Folsom, Elizabeth Irons

Elizabeth Irons Folsom was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1876. She moved to Bloomington as a yo...

Finding Aid

Frink, Dwight E.

Dwight E. Frink was born in Bloomington February 16, 1874. He was educated in the ward schools...

Finding Aid

Goudy, Frederic W.

Frederic W. Goudy was born in Bloomington in 1865. Goudy spent his early years in Bloomington w...

Finding Aid

Greeting Card

The collection includes greeting cards and postcards from 1893 to the present, social calling c...

Finding Aid

Gregor, Harold Collection

The son of Scottish immigrants, Harold Gregor was born in Detroit, MI, and earned his PhD from ...

Finding Aid

Hart, James

Born in Lawndale, Illinois, in 1882, James “Jimmie” Michael Hart was initially reared in Atlant...

Finding Aid

Helen Littleton Burns Postcard Collection

This remarkable collection is comprised of postcards sent to and collected by Helen Littleton B...

Finding Aid

Higgins-Jung-Kleinau Co

Hamer J. Higgins (1840-1902) began apprenticing as a marble cutter at Haldeman’s Marble Works o...

Finding Aid

Hubbard Family

The Hubbard family, consisting of Silas (father), Juliana (mother), Charles (son), and Hannah ...

Finding Aid

Hubbard Roycrofters Book

Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, a...

Finding Aid

Illinois Shakespeare Festival

In 1978 the Illinois Shakespeare Festival was established. The Festival is held each summer on ...

Finding Aid

Jones, Ethel Pearle Smith

This collection contains the prose, poetry and plays written by Ethel Pearle Smith Jones, and s...

Finding Aid

KodaRoamers Camera Club

The KodaRoamers was formed organized in September 1944. The aim of this photography group, acco...

Finding Aid

Lincoln Statue Bicentennial Project (1975-1978)

V.L. (“Budd”) Fairfield (1926-2009). Bloomington High School American history teacher, served a...

Finding Aid

McLean County Arts Center

This collection includes exhibition catalogs and promotional materials, a coloring and activity...

Finding Aid

McLean County Arts Council

The McLean County Arts Council was incorporated in 1972 and served as a funding organization to...

Finding Aid

McLean County Arts Council Bicentennial

The collection contains documents pertaining to the McLean County Bicentennial Arts Festival an...

Finding Aid

McLean County Ethnographies

Illinois State University anthropology professor Dr. Rob Dirks collected essays from his studen...

Finding Aid

Montgomery, Alfred

Alfred Montgomery (1858-1922) was born in Logan County, Illinois, and moved to Bloomington in 1...

Finding Aid

Morgan, Charles

Charles Morgan, a carpenter by trade, started his diaries in 1896. In his earliest days he was...

Finding Aid

Myers, John F.

Born in 1834 in Kentucky, John Frances Myers came to McLean County as an infant and grew up on ...

Finding Aid

Normal Summer Theatre

The High School Summer Theatre Program—now sponsored by the Town of Normal’s Department of Cult...

Finding Aid

Pantagraph Comics

The Pantagraph added a locally developed "Wilson and Phyllis" cartoon to their Sunday...

Finding Aid

Phoenix Family and Nursery

Materials in the Phoenix collection cover the history of the Phoenix family and its nurseries i...

Finding Aid

Smith, Sidney

Robert Sidney "Sid" Smith (1873-1935) was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on February ...

Finding Aid

Walker, Frank Albert

In the mid-1850s, the Joseph Walker family established a farm on the northern edge of Normal. F...

Finding Aid

Wood, Lois Postcard

This is a collection of over 250 postcards collected by Lois Wood over the years to show life i...

Finding Aid

Wyckoff, Martin

Martin Anders Wyckoff was born in Normal, Illinois April 20, 1950, to Delmar and Elizabeth Ande...

Finding Aid

Making a Home

1 item

Mississippian Artifacts and Pottery

The artifacts displayed here were excavated from the only known Mississippian village in McLean...

Digital Exhibit

Research

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Post Amerikan

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

Article

Speakers Bureau

1 item

Artists, Advocates, Acrobats, and More! Women Who Made McLean County History

Speakers Bureau

Videos

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Artists, Advocates, Acrobats, & More! Women Who Made McLean County History

Video

Crafting History: Embroidering Festive Felt Ornaments

Video

Crafting History: Wonders of Weaving

Video

Creating a Public Art Destination

Video

Lunch & Learn: Quirky Sites in Illinois

Video

Lunch & Learn: The Land of the Giants from Atlanta, Illinois with Bill Thomas

Video

Lunch and Learn: The Art of the Rug with Hossein Nateghpour

Video

Tattooing Finds You: How Tattooists Navigate their World

Video

Working for a Living

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Selling Cars and Taking Flight

As automobiles gained popularity, the number of car dealers grew. But dealers needed capital in...

Digital Exhibit

Sid Smith

Many local visual artists have created works of beauty. But Sid Smith used his creative talents...

Digital Exhibit