Book based on Come & Get It!  exhibit now available for purchase

The Museum has published a book based on the current exhibit, Come & Get!  The Way We Ate 1830-2008.  Author Robert Dirks' Come & Get It! McDonaldization and the Disappearance of Local Food from a Central Illinois Community is now available for purchase.
  Robert Dirks, emeritus professor of anthropology at Illinois State University is also the guest curator for the exhibit.   The book provides an  in-depth  look at the changes in our food habits over time. Dirks has conducted research in areas of food and nutrition for nearly 30 years. His publications include papers in Annual Review of Nutrition, Journal of Nutrition, The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, African Food Systems in Crisis and other publications.

Purchase a  paperback edition at the Museum's On the Square Gift Shop   for $19.95 or order the Kindle edition online from Amazon.com for $9.95.  A paperback version can also be purchased from Amazon.com for $19.95.


An Architectural Glimpse into Downtown Bloomington using Smartphone Technology
With the advances and developments in Mobile media, the Museum of History has decided to go mobile too.  We have developed a Mobile Architectural Tour through Downtown Bloomington.  The tour utilizes QR (quick response) codes that have been placed in the windows of rich and historically significant buildings around Downtown Bloomington.  We hope this helps you to learn more about Bloomington's architectural history, while having fun.

The individual webpages are designed for visitors to gain architectural information about each location, noting the type of material, design style, architectural elements and other aspects to the architecture of the building.  The pages also include brief notes of history, making the building come alive in a sense.  The Museum is also currently using QR codes in the permanent exhibit, Encounter on the Prairie, located on the first floor of the Museum.

Open through January 2012
Come & Get It! The Way We Ate 1830 -2008.  Explore the eating habits, cooking equipment, methods and diverse food traditions of McLean residents since the early 1800s.  Discover how dramatically our habits have changed over time.  Investigate four kitchens, each representing a different era and illuminating how the kitchen has changed in the last 180 years.  Use hands-on interactives to better understand where food has come from and how dramatically food sources have changed.  Delve into the interpretive panels between kitchens to see social and economic changes that have shaped the way we ate from 1830 to 2008.