The McLean County Museum of History has reopened its third floor Merwin Gallery after years of renovation. The downtown Bloomington museum's roof was replaced in 2020, followed by interior work repairing water damage to the building’s top floor.
The gallery now hosts a rotating selection of items from the museum's collection owned by McLean County residents — most of which are in storage.
Curator Susan Hartzold said it took eight months to build the display cases and select items.
“It was basically an empty space,” she said.
All 300 artifacts on view now were owned by McLean County residents. The eclectic collection includes military rifles, mobile phones, vintage hair rollers, counter top kitchen appliances, ladies’ hats and chamber pots — all intended to show an array of diverse experiences living and working in central Illinois during different time periods.
“We have about 18,000 pieces in our collection,” Hartzold said. “Before we opened this gallery — just like about every other museum — we had about 3% of our collection on display. This exhibit effectively doubles that number.”
Select items will be rotated every few months to provide visitors with a variety of artifacts. Paper and textiles are most likely to deteriorate in light — another reason to not leave items on display indefinitely. But Hartzold said bringing items out of storage occasionally is an important part of preserving them.
“One of the objects that I pulled was a beaded purse,” she said, noticing it was damaged and in need of conservation.
“It’s very good to get them out every once in a while, reevaluate their condition and make sure they’re being stored properly.”
Digital database
Each item is labeled with a QR code, leading visitors to a long label with the history of the artifact, how it was used and a biography of its owner. The Merwin Gallery’s reopening is thus connected to a parallel project readying the museum’s digital database for public release. Hartzold said this is not uncommon for museums, but the volume and quality of McLean County Museum of History’s data is unique.
“The online initiative is still in process,” she said. “It’s a great way to see the broad range of things we have in our collection.”
Visitors to the museum also can view the database in a new kiosk installed in the Merwin Gallery.
“Seeing the real object is definitely a draw,” Hartzold said. “I do think we’ll get good traffic.”
McLean County owns the building and shouldered expenses for needed roof and plaster renovations, plus a recent overhaul to the elevator. The gallery itself was built with volunteer help and financial backing from Sharon Merwin of the Merwin Foundation.
“It’s huge,” said executive director Julie Emig. “Her contribution made this gallery possible, everything from building the units from the ground up to ensuring that the objects were carefully preserved and placed — to the enormous amount of time it takes to pulling something like this together.”
