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Food and Restaurants

Articles

6 items

Clara Brian champion of farm families
Clara Brian spent 25 years traveling to every corner of the McLean County countryside with the ...

Article

Located at the corner of Madison and Monroe streets in downtown Bloomington, this building served as the McLean County jail from 1882 to 1977.

Homemade Christmas dinner once a McLean County jail tradition
“Unfortunate souls who spend Christmas Day in the county jail will at least have a tasty dinner...

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

Picture postcard speaks to power of donations
As a not-for-profit institution, the McLean County Museum of History relies to a considerable e...

Article

Turbulent times at 19th century Bloomington hotel
The Ashley House, Bloomington’s largest hotel from the Civil War until its fiery end in 1900, h...

Article

Biographies

12 items

Paul F Beich in 1936

Beich, Paul F.
Paul F. Beich was a German immigrant who worked in the candy-making business, first as a salesm...

Biography

Belt, Augustus "Gus"
Augustus "Gus" Belt (1895-1954) and Edith Pressler Belt (1896 – 1973) successfully gr...

Biography

Belt, Edith Pressler
Edith Pressler Belt (1896 – 1973) and Augustus "Gus" Belt (1895-1954) successfully gr...

Biography

James Preston Butler

Butler, James Preston
James Preston Butler was a tinsmith, butcher, grocer, policeman, tax collector, alderman, const...

Biography

Elmer Davis headstone

Davis, Elmer
Elmer Ray Davis was born in Bement, Piatt County, Illinois, on October 6, 1888. He was the elde...

Biography

Alexander Erickson

Erickson, Alexander G.
Swedish immigration during the nineteenth century was part of a larger trend occurring in the w...

Biography

Henry Funk

Funk, Henry
Henry Funk was a career orchardist, apiarist, poultry man, and horticulturalist. Though not to ...

Biography

Riebsame, Christian
Captain Christian Riebsame (1839-1913) was a German-born citizen who came to the United States ...

Biography

Sanders, Isaac
Isaac Joshua Beasley Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on January 17, 1878. He was the ...

Biography

Ella Stokes

Stokes, Ella Lee
Ella Lee Luallen is one of many important voices in the Black history of McLean County. She was...

Biography

Vrooman, Julia Scott
Carl was born in Macon County, Missouri on October 25, 1872. He was the son of Judge Hiram Perk...

Biography

Jennie Wickizer

Wickizer, Jennie MacDonald
Jennie MacDonald Wickizer was born on December 31, 1852 at Knightswood, Scotland, located just ...

Biography

Blog

7 items

East Twin Grove Farmers’ Picnic July 28, 1922
In late July 1922, the McLean County Farm Bureau and the McLean County Home Bureau held a picni...

Blog Post

McDonald’s Open for Business 806 S. Main St., Normal February 1959
An intrepid Museum staffer tracked this wonderful image down, taken in mid-February 1959 - this...

Blog Post

McDonald’s in Normal 806 S. Main St., 1961
The Twin Cities first McDonald’s restaurant opened in early 1959. The view here is looking sout...

Blog Post

McHistory: ‘King of Swedes’ kept Bloomington streets clean
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Mount Hope Ladies Aid Moore’s Mill Marker, August 1968
The most famous gristmill in McLean County was the one operated by the Moore family of Mount Ho...

Blog Post

Smell that Smoke! Cecil Cone’s Barbecue, May 1953
In early May 1953, former Bloomington Mayor Cecil Cone brought past and present city officials ...

Blog Post

Thompson’s Restaurant, Undated 208 N. Center St., Downtown Bloomington
A longtime fixture on the west side of the Courthouse Square, Thompson’s Restaurant welcomed lo...

Blog Post

Farming in the Great Corn Belt

2 items

1853 to 1899: Labor
The railroad arrived in 1853, bringing with it an influx of immigrants willing to provide labor...

Digital Exhibit

Farm Wives
Many farmers were successful because of the support and assistance they received from their ded...

Digital Exhibit

Finding Aids

1 item

Dairies Collection
Bloomington-Normal has been home to family dairies that delivered milk to customers since the m...

Finding Aid

Making a Home

4 items

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

Digital Exhibit

Samuel Hayes
For school teacher Samuel Hayes, the winter journey to Bloomington meant reconnecting with his ...

Digital Exhibit

The Kickapoo
Seven hundred years ago the Mississippian culture faded. The descendants of the Mississippians ...

Digital Exhibit

The Mississippians
The Mississippian Tradition was one characterized by mound building, fortified towns, heavy re...

Digital Exhibit

Oral Histories

1 item

Lue Anna Clark
Father was enslaved, WWI era restaurant business, boarding of ISNU students...

Oral History

Publications

1 item

Come And Get It: McDonaldization and the Disappearance of Local Food from a Central Illinois Community
At one time the residents of McLean County produced and processed most of their own food and dr...

Publication

Speakers Bureau

1 item

German Brewers in Bloomington, IL 1859-1920

Speakers Bureau

Videos

2 items

Family Heirloom Recipes from the Illinois State Fair

Video

Lunch & Learn: Organizing for policy change for a more just and regenerative food system

Video

Working for a Living

3 items

Changing Shipping Practices
Many business owners continued to use the railroad to ship their products. But the trucking of ...

Digital Exhibit

Food on the Run
Food service workers, whether cooks, wait staff, processors, or delivery or management personne...

Digital Exhibit

Pioneering Merchants
Before the arrival of the railroad, McLean County residents used credit and a bartering system,...

Digital Exhibit