McLean County Museum Of History

History connects people through time. And learning how the past links to the present is basic to understanding the human condition. In our series on transplants to the Twin Cities, WGLT has found history matters to several people who have moved to central Illinois.

In a surprising move that has implications for not-for-profit organizations in central Illinois, State Farm is cutting back on its charitable giving in at least one area. The company website notes retirees will no longer be eligible for the company's charitable matching gift program, effective with the new year.

The McLean County Museum of History is about to rededicate a memorial honoring the 336 McLean County men and women who gave their lives for freedom during World War II.

The way Black people were treated in Bloomington-Normal got a lot worse in the 20th century than in the years before, and that's saying something. Those conditions produced jarring juxtapositions in people’s lives, such as that of an intelligent churchgoing Black woman who worked for the family of State Farm royalty and in a brothel to make ends meet.

The way Black people were treated in Bloomington-Normal got a lot worse in the 20th century than in the years before, and that's saying something. Those conditions produced jarring juxtapositions in people’s lives, such as that of an intelligent churchgoing Black woman who worked for the family of State Farm royalty and in a brothel to make ends meet.

One doesn’t think of Bloomington and central Illinois as a lurid hotbed of crime. But it certainly seems it could have been that way during the mid-to-late 1800s as portrayed by the three city newspapers of the day.

Chicago-based journalist Catalina Maria Johnson will use music illustrations as a way of understanding the history, roots, and concerns of Latinos in this land when she appears at the Normal Public Library on Saturday, Aug. 6.

Local composer Eddie Breitweiser premieres his latest work on Friday at the McLean County Museum of History — a soundscape called "Six Words," devised from community members’ written responses to the pandemic, and which is part of a statewide initiative called "Viral Silence: Community Portraits in Response to COVID-19."

Coming from nothing, an illiterate Black man from Bloomington-Normal — long before the civil rights movement — found a niche in the national market for cleaning products. In this episode of the WGLT feature McHistory, hear about a floor polish and the man who invented and sold it.

The Bloomington Public Library has started an effort to preserve and improve access to local historical documents in partnership with the McLean County Museum of History.