Transportation

Articles

13 items

The top image was taken from the Livingston office building at the corner of Main and Washington streets, so the view is looking north. The second image shows the Comet perched on the roof of C.W. Klemm’s, a locally owned department store once located on the north side of the courthouse square.

Airship pays visit to downtown Bloomington in 1910

For Bloomington, the age of aviation arrived on September 14, 1910. On that date, a one-man air...

Article

Illinois State Normal University’s Cook Hall gymnasium, seen here in September 1946, provided temporary housing to newly enrolled World War II veterans awaiting the completion of off-campus federal housing units.

Back to school 1946 meant return to normalcy

The start of 1946-1947 school year, coming as it did a full year after the end of World War II,...

Article

Before railroads, stage lines crisscrossed the prairies

One of the more striking modern day conveniences we take for granted is the ease of long distan...

Article

a yellow paper and faded print shows a dog with his mouth open, tongue hanging out. He has dark fur that is wavy, thick all the way down to his furry paws. He has floppy ears. He has four legs in this image. Below the image of the dog it says

Beloved ‘Rags’ rode the rails to local fame

The story of “Rags” is proof that most everyone loves a shaggy dog story, especially those of t...

Article

Electric cars sparked local interest long before Rivian

The startling success of electric automaker Rivian has shined an international spotlight on Blo...

Article

Extinct passenger pigeon once visitor to Central Illinois

In 1810, 24-year-old attorney Henry Marie Brackenridge traveled down the Ohio River to Ste. Gen...

Article

dozens of people are in this image, all standing looking towards the camera. Dirt is in the foreground, as well as a large steamroller. In the background is a two-story brick building, homes, trees, and utility poles. Many men are holding buckets and shovels.

First brick street in U.S. myth endures in Bloomington

At the southwest corner of the Courthouse Square, near the intersection of Center and Washingto...

Article

a dirt trail meets water, surrounded by trees and bushes

For pioneers, river crossings sometimes matter of life and death

Of all the hardships faced by pioneers, the danger of crossing swollen rivers and creeks is one...

Article

Intrepid Pantagrapher paid visit to Santa’s North Pole

In 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon famously wrote the New York Sun newspaper to ask if that ...

Article

“In appearance the grand master suggests the banker or the prosperous businessman,” it was said of Patrick H. Morrissey. “In height he is about 5 feet 10 inches, weighs perhaps 185 pounds, wears a mustache and hair that is reddish in hue, and possesses a pair of blue eyes that can see things and understand.”

Labor leader product of west side railroad shops

Born and raised on Bloomington’s west side, Patrick Henry Morrissey became a national labor lea...

Article

Oxen the original ‘work horses’ of the prairie

Before the introduction of draft horses and then steam and gasoline-powered tractors, oxen prov...

Article

WW I freighter ‘Evergreen City’ named for Bloomington

At the end of World War I, Bloomington citizens were given the honor of having a freighter name...

Article

‘Trolley Days’ raised funds for the underprivileged

“Let the slogan of the day be, ‘Ride for Charity,’” announced the Jul. 6, 1911 Pantagraph. “Lea...

Article

Biographies

1 item

Hawkins, Absalom

Absalom Hawkins, known as Ab by nearly all, was born on December 25, 1855. According to his obi...

Biography

Blog

30 items

B-29 Bomber Visits Courthouse Square June 13, 1950

Back during the early years of the Cold War the fuselage of a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress...

Blog Post

Bloomington Municipal Airport Terminal, April 1964

The period from Wednesday through Sunday around Thanksgiving is usually the busiest travel time...

Blog Post

Bloomington Municipal Airport June 20, 1941

This aerial view of Bloomington Municipal Airport (now Central Illinois Regional Airport, or CI...

Blog Post

C.W. Frey’s Showroom Downtown Bloomington, circa 1929-30

Clarence W. Frey & Sons was a longtime auto dealership and service center located at 300-31...

Blog Post

Carlock from the Air Circa 1930

The Village of Carlock, established in 1888, is seen here in an undated but circa 1930 aerial. ...

Blog Post

Chenoa Airport, 1948

The most recent Sunday Pantagraph “Page from Our Past” installment examined the fascinating his...

Blog Post

Future Flying Farmers? Bloomington Municipal Airport, 1953

The McLean County chapter of Flying Farmers offered free airplane rides to some 70 moms and dad...

Blog Post

Heyworth High and Environs January 1933

This wonderful aerial photograph of Heyworth High School dates to January 23, 1933. The view is...

Blog Post

Illinois Terminal Railroad September 1950. Pt. 2

Pantagraph reporter Wilma Tolley traveled on the Bloomington-to-Peoria Illinois Terminal light ...

Blog Post

Inaugural Bloomington Flight Ozark Air Lines, Nov. 6, 1950

The holiday season often means hectic times for those traveling by air. Commercial air service ...

Blog Post

Men with Hats Passenger Service Inaugurated Old ‘Bloomington’ Airport, 1931

The first Bloomington Airport was actually located several miles north of Normal and featured a...

Blog Post

Mother Road Turns Deadly October 28, 1949

John M. Newman of Pittsfield, IL, was killed on October 28, 1949, when his Pacific Intermountai...

Blog Post

National Air Mail Week May 1938

Art Carnahan (left), manager of the Bloomington Municipal Airport (now Central Illinois Regiona...

Blog Post

Ozark Air Lines Touches Down Bloomington Municipal Airport, Nov. 6, 1950

An estimated 200 area residents were on hand at the Municipal Airport (now Central Illinois Reg...

Blog Post

Parking meters perplex motorists Downtown Bloomington, May 1941

Parking meters were first installed in downtown Bloomington in February 1940. By the following ...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 16: Cropsey Railroad Station

This rare shot of the train depot in Cropsey likely dates to the 1880s. A hamlet in the northea...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 17: Tracy Green & Co., circa 1928

Tracy Green & Co., circa 1928, located at the southwest corner of Washington and Gridley st...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 18: 1,000 License Plates Contributed in WW II Drive

During the Second World War, communities such as Bloomington scrounged for scrap metal to boost...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 71: Grim Reapers Pay Respects to Fallen Comrade

On June 16, 1970, about 50 members of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club led a funeral procession...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 84: 'Bloody 66' claims 4 victims in early February 1939

On Friday, February 3, 1939, four area men were killed in a late evening automobile accident on...

Blog Post

Randolph from On High Undated Aerial

Central Illinois is dotted with the tiniest of communities that owe their existence to the rail...

Blog Post

The Shape of Things to Come Brunton’s First Delivery Truck, 1908

This 1908 scene shows Campbell Brunton behind the wheel of the very first truck owned by the fa...

Blog Post

The Tilbury Flash on display at Central Illinois Regional Airport

The McLean County Museum of History’s largest artifact, the Tilbury Flash racing plane, has off...

Blog Post

Twilight of the Interurban Downtown Bloomington, 1950

This September 1950 scene shows an Illinois Terminal Railroad car trundling past the 200 block ...

Blog Post

Unfinished Business Interstate 74 , October 1965

This aerial shows Interstate 74 under construction southeast of Bloomington in the fall of 1965...

Blog Post

Union Bus Station, 1956 523 N. East Street, Bloomington

“A feeling of sadness that only bus stations have” Jack Kerouac mused in his 1957 novel “On the...

Blog Post

Veterans Parkway as the Route 66 ‘Beltline’ December 1960

This aerial, looking due north, shows the corner of Route 66 (“D”) and Route 9 / Empire Street ...

Blog Post

‘Lucky Lindy’ Bails Out November 1926

On the evening of November 3, 1926, Charles Lindbergh jumped out of his U.S. airmail biplane so...

Blog Post

‘Union’ Depot, December 1979 Bloomington’s West Side

Opened in 1913, Union Depot (also known as Bloomington Depot) was located just south of West Wa...

Blog Post

“A City Unto Itself” Chicago & Alton RR Shops

This undated aerial photograph, looking northwest, gives one a sense of the impressive size of ...

Blog Post

Finding Aids

21 items

Airline Timetable Collection

Finding Aid

Amtrak Timetables

Amtrak schedules for routes around the country, including Illinois and surrounding states....

Finding Aid

Aviation Collection

The file contains various newspaper clippings, advertisements, personal accounts, and ephemera ...

Finding Aid

Bloomington, Illinois Aviation 1920, 1930, 1940

Aviation buff Marion McClure donated these materials which he used in compiling a 1998 book ent...

Finding Aid

Bridgestone Firestone

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company became Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire in 1995. Th...

Finding Aid

Bus Transit

The Bloomington-Normal public transit system opened in 1938 under the name “Bloomington-Normal ...

Finding Aid

Chicago & Alton Railroad Miscellaneous

The coming of the Illinois Central and the Chicago and Alton Railroads in the 1850s changed Blo...

Finding Aid

Childers, James Railroad

James H. Childers (1903-65) was born in Tennessee and according to the census achieved a fourth...

Finding Aid

Freedom Train

The Freedom Train began as a concept formulated by government officials in early 1946. Strongly...

Finding Aid

Garst, Elmer Record Book

A grocer and amateur historian from Stanford, Elmer Garst compiled information about local birt...

Finding Aid

Gossard, Steve Railroad

Born in Galesburg in 1949, Steve Gossard moved to Normal to study at Illinois State University ...

Finding Aid

Gulf Mobile & Ohio

Finding Aid

Haxel Railroading

Delmar Haxel, born in Bloomington in 1920, worked for the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad for th...

Finding Aid

Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central was a major carrier of passengers on its Chicago to New Orleans line and b...

Finding Aid

Illinois Traction Terminal

The Bloomington-to-Peoria interurban line was one of the more charming railroad jaunts in all o...

Finding Aid

Mitsubishi Motors

This collection contains material related to the Mitsubishi Motors Company as well as the Diamo...

Finding Aid

Railroad Books—Miscellaneous

The collection includes assorted books of labor agreements, wage schedules, rules books, manual...

Finding Aid

Railroad Fatalities

The collection includes copies of newspaper articles and obituaries of individuals killed in ra...

Finding Aid

Railroad Time Books

Railroad foremen used time books to record workers’ names, hours, wages and specifics of projec...

Finding Aid

Route 66

Originally called Highway 4, Route 66 was one of the first roads in the nation’s numbered highw...

Finding Aid

Tilbury Flash

The Tilbury Flash is a single-seat American racing monoplane designed and built in the 1930s by...

Finding Aid

Speakers Bureau

4 items

Before Rivian: The Henney Kilowatt--Bloomington's Battery-powered 'Car of Tomorrow'

Speakers Bureau

McLean County Lost: An Illustrated Tour of Vanished Worlds

Speakers Bureau

McLean County: Transportation Crossroads

Speakers Bureau

What's Coming Down the Line? The Railroad in the American Mind

Speakers Bureau

Videos

1 item

Social Justice History Walking Tour

Video