Websites

The Museum is excited to launch our online database, which allows viewers to browse through over 800 object records that had previously been for internal use only. The object records list information such as the object’s name, description, period of creation, associated people, images, and more.

Adlai Today examines the references made to Adlai Stevenson II in current issues in news stories. Explore this website to find out more about this inspirational political figure who called Bloomington home.

A Google Doc containing links to various local Black history resources such as articles, podcasts, videos, finding aids, images, and more!

Read the rich histories featured in our Challenges, Choices, and Change as well as Abraham Lincoln in McLean County exhibits from anywhere!

On this website, you will find stories of events and people in and around Downtown Bloomington, Illinois, that illustrate the evolution of our city over time.

Held by the MCMH and digitized by Eastern Illinois University. The Post Amerikan began publication in 1972 in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. An underground, alternative newspaper, it was run collectively by volunteers. It was the longest continuous publication run for any underground newspaper in America.

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, and they cannot go home with you.

See high resolution digital photographs of the paintings from our collection at the Google Cultural Institute

360 degree walk through of Challenges, Choices, and Change exhibits as well as Abraham Lincoln in McLean County.

Museum staff and community contributors write a weekly column in the Pantagraph Sunday edition. Check out past articles here! (This column was formerly known as Pages from our Past and was written by Bill Kemp, Museum librarian.)

Discover local historic images pinned to a map, some overlaid into Google Street View!

Browse hundreds of resources we have uploaded over the years

These lesson plans were created by teachers in McLean County for teachers everywhere. The lesson plans use Kemp’s columns as a foundation, as they create solid link between McLean County and national events or themes in U.S. History.

Learn about downtown Bloomington's rich history through its buildings. Look for the QR codes that have been placed in the windows of historically significant buildings around downtown.

Visit our YouTube channel to see upcoming live streams, or to watch many of our fascinating past programs.

by Rochelle Gridley

By Rochelle Gridley

by Rochelle Gridley

An affiliate organization of the McLean County Museum of History

Group for people who grew up in Bloomington (or nearby). Everyone who has memories to share is welcome to join.

Dedicated to vintage brick paver preservation in Bloomington Normal. Brick streets, sidewalks, restoring, preserving, re-laying, paver brick names, history, and photos.

Stevensonville was situated West of Bloomington, IL and built in the late 1870s to house the migrant workers from the McLean Co Coal Mine. The eight original streets were Magoun, Packard, Reeves, Williams, Weldon, Worrell (now Olive), and Stevenson (now grove).

Group dedicated to the history of Bloomington/Normal and nearby surrounding areas.

by Ryan Smith. This website contains a map of historic markers in McLean County.

Architectural salvage warehouse

Over 500 audio interviews, stories, and other local features from WGLT (from around 1973 to 1999) are now available to the public through the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH in Boston.

by Rochelle Gridley