Posts about Military
Two Pieces of World War II Accessioned into the Museum's Library and Archives
In the last week, the Museum has accessioned two unique pieces of World War II history: a P.O.W. diary and a collection of 16 pr...
Local Guardsmen Head to Chicago June 1938
On June 20, 1938, about 40 members of Bloomington’s 2nd Battalion, 108th Quartermaster Regiment, headed to Chicago for the annual Illin...
Saybrook’s last Civil War widow Emma Cook, May 1938
In May 1938, the Village of Saybrook prepared to celebrate its first Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) without a Civil War vet...
WW II Rubber Shortage Shirley Farm, March 1942
Arnold Beatty (left) and Colman Hicks, at the O.V. Douglass farm outside of Shirley, demonstrate patching a worn-out tire after yet ano...
Memorial Day 1960 African-American Legionnaires
The Redd-William American Legion Post color guard heads north on East Street in downtown Bloomington during the Memorial Day parade of ...
B-29 Bomber Visits Courthouse Square June 13, 1950
Back during the early years of the Cold War the fuselage of a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress was put on display on the McLean County...
U.S. Declares War The Pantagraph, December 8, 1941
The U.S. Congress declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day. On December 8,...
Photo of the Week, 130: Dogs of War, 1946 Bella and Her Two Surprises
U.S. Army veteran Dwight Pierceall of Normal received quite a shock on June 6, 1946, when he opened a crate sent from Europe. Inside wa...
Photo of the Week, 119: ‘Tanks’ a lot Legionnaires! WW I relic arrives in Bloomington, 1939
Several pieces of military hardware can be found at Bloomington’s Miller Park, including this World War I-era tank, seen here being off...
Miller Hatchery Supports War Effort
What do a chicken and a high explosive artillery shell have in common? This sounds like the beginning of a very bad joke, but here in M...
Photo of the Week, 74: Red, White and Blue in Sepia
In the years after the Civil War, Union Army veteran Gilbert Henderson Bates sought, in his own eccentric way, to help heal the section...
Photo of the Week, 71: Grim Reapers Pay Respects to Fallen Comrade
On June 16, 1970, about 50 members of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club led a funeral procession for L. Wayne Martin, a 24-year-old Bloo...
Collection Highlight: Trench Art
The Museum owns two unique and personal pieces of history that provide a glimpse of how individuals can use their time and talents to a...
McHistory: World War II in McLean County
Listen to the audio on WGLT's...
Photo of the Week, 18: 1,000 License Plates Contributed in WW II Drive
During the Second World War, communities such as Bloomington scrounged for scrap metal to boost the war effort. This early February 194...