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

McLean County Train Yard
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Sanborn map of the train yard in McLean County, Illinois, undated.
Bloomington Fire Company, Bloomington, Illinois
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This photograph shows the Bloomington Fire Company with its equipment. Downtown Bloomington, Illinois, can be seen in the background.
Iron Arrow Point
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The iron point was a trade item obtained from white traders.
Drag Roller
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This drawing shows a drag roller, a rotating cylinder on one end and a hitch on the other.
Enfield and Mackey Cigar Factory
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Five men pose in front of the Enfield and Mackey Cigar Factory, an early 20th century manufacturer operating in Bloomington.
Sona-Mag Advertisement
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Sona-Mag continues to produce tape units such as this one. They also produced electronic equipment for airports.
Moratz Planing Mill Workers
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Four workers at the Moratz Planing Mill, about 1915, stand amongst equipment used for cutting and shaping wood.
Sellman's Blacksmith Shop Inside
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Horses stand in waiting as horseshoes hang on the wall inside Ralph with Sellman's blacksmith shop.
Mitsubishi Stamping
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This is one of the five press lines in the stamping shop at Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America (MMMA) where coils of steel are stamped into body parts such as doors, hoods, and floor plans.
Herding hogs to Chicago
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This drawing shows farmers herding hogs to Chicago, where they were known to fetch a high price.
Melcher and Jefferis Stair Building Advertisement
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Melcher and Jefferis were local artisans who built custom staircases, like the spiral one in this ad, in the late 19th century.
Meyer Brewing Company
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Meyer Brewing Company, located where Highland Golf Course is today, brewed beer from 1862 until Prohibition closed the business.
Meyer Brewing Company Advertisement
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Meyer Brewing Company, located where Highland Golf Course is today, brewed beer from 1862 until Prohibition closed the business. This advertisement proclaims, "Not the largest brewery in the world, but the one that spends most money in Bloomington and does things for Bloomington.
Portable Elevator Company
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A worker at the Portable Elevator Co. pours iron in this 1935 photograph.
Loading Corn into Wagons
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)In a field, corn is loaded into a wagon so it can be transported.
Excess corn stored outside elevator
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)When grain elevators and silos were full due to a bumper crop or better technology, excess corn would sometimes be piled on the ground for temporary storage.
Ethanol advertisement
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This advertisement promoting ethanol sits on the fence outside Leo Miller's farm in McLean County.
1948 Corn Bowl program
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This program for the 1948 Corn Bowl football game in Bloomington pitted the Illinois Wesleyan Titans against the Eastern Illinois Panthers.
Pfister Float in 1947 Corn Bowl Parade
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A Pfister float made of corn cobs travels in the 1947 Corn Bowl parade.
Leo Miller House
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This replacement house on the Leo Miller farm was built around the turn of the 20th century.
Illinois Central Railroad, Construction
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The construction of three railroads in the 1850s, including this picture of the Illinois Central Railroad, altered the relationship of the corn farm with the world outside McLean County, Illinois.
Brown's Corn Planter
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This example of a corn planter shows how two people were required to work the machinery.
Dennis Kenyon Home in the 1970s
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)The Dennis Kenyon home in the early 1970s.
Detasselers During World War II
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A group of female detasselers during World War II at Funk's farm including Gretchen Gottschalk, Barbara Benjamin, Marcella Pierson, unknown, Bessie Gottschalk, Phyllis Bender, Mary Johnston, Betty Belle Alverson, Isabel Gottschalk, Barbara Zook, Louise Gottschalk, May Johnson, and Alice Johnston.
Flat Bottom Drain Tile
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This drain tile was made of clay and used for drainage of fields. It has a flat bottom and is 2-4 inches in diameter.
Corn-Shock Binder
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This illustration shows the tools used in binding corn into shocks.
Grain elevator
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A farmer's elevator in Cooksville, Illinois has wooden siding on all sides. A fence leads to this elevator, which has a shingled roof.
Funk Laboratory
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A photograph of beakers, flasks, and test tubes inside the Funk Laboratory where hybrids and herbacides were concocted.
Plow Sketch
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A sketch of an early plow, probably hitched to oxen or horses. A hook at the front provides for the hitch. At the back are handles for the farmer to guide the plow. A wheel in the middle provides movement.
McLean County Map in Corn Exhibit
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A map of McLean County sits in the middle of a corn school exhibit at a December 17, 1909, Teacher's Institute in Normal, Illinois.
Harvesting Corn with Horses
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Piles of corn ears lie on the ground of a harvest row. A team of horses stands at the end of the row of harvested corn and the rest of the unharvested field is on the left.
Delivering grain at Shirley elevator
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Darrell Beehn, Jr. delivers grain to the elevator near Shirley, Illinois, in the fall of 1995.
Moving corn from combine to wagon
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A Cat Challenger grain cart and 9600 John Deere tractor harvest corn near Shirley, Illinois, in October 1995.
Tile Silo
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Marvin Hougham stands next to a tile silo built about 1920 by his father.
Mature corn near Shirley
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)This mature cornfield is on the Funk Trust Farm near Shirley, Illinois, in September 1995.
Griesheim's Advertisement for Cornfest
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)Griesheim's clothing store runs an ad for the Bloomington Cornfest.
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.
1947 Corn Bowl Parade
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)A float from the City of Bloomington depicting a mill wheel travels in the 1947 Corn Bowl Parade.
J.J. Ham House and Barn
Image | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community)An 1887 view of J.J. Ham's 1873 home south of Hudson.

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