Items | Digital Collections at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library

Gas station
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Gas pumps sit in front of the McLean County Service Company at the northeast corner of Jefferson and East streets. An attendant is shown servicing an automobile.
Cooking class, Bloomington High School, Illinois
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Girls practice their cooking skills in cooking class at Bloomington High School, Illinois.
Major Nolton Engine
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A number of men surround the C&A "Major Nolton" Engine. The engine went to Chicago to fight the Great Fire in 1871, and it became nationally known because it reached Chicago in such short time to help fight the fire.
Atl-atl weight
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The atl-atl weight was a spear thrower used by the Archaic Indians for hunting animals. It was made of stone. Archaic Indians also supplemented their food supply by gathering nuts, berries, herbs and roots.
Kickapoo Bear Chief (Mkopahmah)
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Bear Chief (Mkopahmah) was a Kickapoo Indian living on the Kickapoo reservation in Kansas. He was photographed by Milo Custer, who visited there in 1906 and 1911.
Silver Cross
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This silver cross was obtained by the Kickapoo from white traders.
Projectile Point
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This wide projectile point has two distinct notches on either side. It was used by the Woodland Indians for hunting.
Trade Axe
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This trade axe was manufactured by white settlers and traded to the Kickapoo.
Union Depot, Bloomington, Illinois
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A crowd mingles on the Union Depot platform on West Washington Street, Bloomington, Illinois.
First Methodist Church of Bloomington
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The former First Methodist Church of Bloomington is shown. The building, built in 1839, is covered with advertisements. Two men can be seen sitting in the open door. The Church had been converted to a livery stable.
Kickapoo Band
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Members of the Kickapoo Band are seated with instruments. The band was at Kickapoo School, Brown County, Kansas.
Weston Depot
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The small wooden depot served the town of Weston, Illinois. Multiple railroad tracks can be seen in the foreground.
Wreckage of the Bloomington Fire
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The damaged Bloomington skyline is visible beyond the courthouse square. A streetcar and a crowd of people are visible in the foreground. June 19, 1900, much of the center of Bloomington was destroyed by a fire that started in the Model Laundry. Flames spread rapidly and destroyed many buildings in a four square block area of the city. No businesses failed because of the fir...
Circus performers on trapeze
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Trapeze artists fly through the air in Bloomington, Illinois.
German Day, Bloomington, Illinois
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The streets of Bloomington, Illinois, are shown decorated for German Day. By 1870, 13% of the population of Bloomington was of German descent or born in Germany. The Germans in Bloomington held their own cultural events and had their own organizations. The Germans living in Bloomington had their own schools and churches, as well as their own German-language newspaper.
C&A Shops, Locomotive
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A locomotive sits in the C&A shops in Bloomington, Illinois. C&A (Chicago and Alton) shops were the largest employer in McLean County. There, the first Pullman sleeper, the first commerical dining car, and the first reclining chair car were made.
Chert Hoe
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This chert hoe was used by Woodland Indians for farming. Woodland Indians grew corn, beans and squash, and hunted buffalo and deer. Chert is a very fine grained rock which can be shaped into arrowheads and points by chipping.
Cyclists' Ten Commandments & ID Card
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The ID card and Ten Commandments contain personal information about Lyman R. Tay. Interpretation Text includes: Copyright 1897 "THE CYCLIST'S TEN COMMANDMENTS" Thus spoke the wheel: I am thy friend in need, thy friend indeed. Thou shalt have no other wheel but me . . . Thou shalt not take me in rain, nor on the wrong path. Remember the road to keep it wholly,...
Bloomington Bicycle Club, Illinois
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The members of The Bloomington Bicycle Club are shown with their bicycles.
Interior of a Pullman Car
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The Pullman dining car is decorated with elaborate furniture, curtains and carpeting.
McLean Bicyclists
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Three young women from McLean, Illinois, are shown with their bicycles.
Wooden Pitchfork
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This type of wooden pitchfork was commonly used on farms throughout McLean County, Illinois.
Split Rail Corn Cribs
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)These split rail corn cribs were used to store excess corn during the 1830's.
Projectile Point
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This projectile point is dark in color. It is slightly notched near the base. It was used by Woodland Indians for hunting.
Mussel Shell Hoe
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This mussel shell hoe was used in the cultivation of corn, beans and squash by the Mississippian Indians.
Scissors
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)These iron scissors were manufactured by white settlers and traded with the Kickapoo.
Tilbury Flash' Airplane
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The "Tilbury Flash" is shown on the grounds of the Bloomington Airport, Illinois. It was a small racing airplane, with an 18-foot wing span and a motorcycle engine. It hangs from the ceiling at the McLean County Musuem of History.
The Heart of the Cornbelt book cover
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This cover from The Heart of the Cornbelt: An Illustrated History of Corn Farming in McLean County by William D. Walters Jr. covers corn farming from Native Americans to present.
Pantagraph Bindery
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This photo shows The Book Bindery of The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois. The Pantagraph newspaper first published in 1837. It was two years older than the Chicago Tribune, and was a well-respected newspaper. There were many newspapers published in McLean County, many of them in Bloomington and Normal.
Barn Raising
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)McLean County, Illinois, men pose for a picture during a barn raising.
Clay Pot
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This clay pot was used by the Mississippian Indians. An important use was food storage.
Madison' Projectile Points
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Four small to medium-sized thin triangular arrowheads. The points are usually like isosceles triangles in shape, or more rarely, equilateral triangles.
Grooved axe
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The grooved axe was a tool used by the Archaic Indians. It was made of stone.
The Comet' Airship
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The photos shows the dirigible "The Comet" on top of the Klemm building. It was piloted by Captain George Yager. It was the first controllable aircraft to appear in McLean County.
Lincoln Beachey
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The Lincoln Beachey, an early aircraft, is shown at the LeRoy Fair, Illinois. Fairgoers can be seen in the background.
Bloomington High School Band
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The members of the Bloomington High School Band pose in full uniform.
Pantagraph Composing Room
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The Composing Room of The Pantagraph Printing & Stationery Company, Bloomington, Illinois, is detailed in this photo.
Taxi Wreck
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A crowd of people surround a wrecked taxi cab on a Bloomington, Illinois, street corner. The rear half of the taxi is demolished.
Bloomington - Normal Street Car
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The photo shows street cars that were part of the street railway system. The viaduct under the C&A tracks in Normal is shown, and it is still used by an occasional auto.
Wisconsin Dells Excursion
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A group of McLean County, Illinois, residents take a boat excursion in the Wisconsin Dells.

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