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ISM Web offerings for History
The ISM history collections include interdisciplinary collections that cut across the Museum’s departments of art, anthropology, library and archives, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and natural sciences. Examples of these collections can be found in the At Home in the Heartland, RiverWeb, and Harvesting the River web presentations. Online collections include the Sadorus Photograph Collection (ca. 1910).
- Anthropology Exhibit
- These case exhibits focus on archaeological and ethnographic topics and artifacts such as Native American pottery, basketry, weavings, weapons, and tools. Find out more ...
- At Home in the Heartland
- Listen to the stories of real people who lived in Illinois. Immerse yourself in the dramatic changes in household life over the past 300 years. Find out more ...
- Peoples of the Past
- Life-sized dioramas and finely crafted artifacts bring to life Illinois' rich Native American heritage. Find out more ...
- The Mary Ann MacLean Play Museum
- The Play Museum is a free children's area at the Illinois State Museum-Springfield. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday (10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.) and Sunday (1:00 to 4:30 p.m.) Closed Monday. Find out more ...
 - Amish Quilt Gallery
- You can learn about the history of quilts created by Illinois Amish women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The images and information are from the Museum publication Illinois Amish Quilts: Sharing Threads of Tradition, which can be purchased from the Museum by consulting the Publications Web page or telephoning the Museum.
 - Morton D. Barker Paperweight Collection Gallery
- View the Barker Collection of Classical French, British, American, and other Paperweights. The prestigious Morton D. Barker Paperweight Collection of 252 glass objects, including more than 200 outstanding examples of antique French paperweights of the Classic Period (1845 - 1860) manufactured by the glass companies Baccarat, Saint Louis, Clichy, and Pantin.
 - A Family Farm Album: Photography of Frank Sadorus
- The wonderful photographer Frank Sadorus lived and worked on a farm in eastern Illinois. He was an amateur photographer who chronicled his life and times. The three galleries in this exhibit feature his work and historical farm implements.
 - At Home in the Heartland
- Learn about home life in Illinois from 1700 to the present in six eras, illustrated by the Museum's collections of objects from homes. At Home is an interactive web site that teaches concepts of history focused on the choices people have made in their lives.
 - Audio-Video Barn: Oral History of Illinois Agriculture
- The Audio-Video Barn is full of stories about Illinois agriculture. It contains audio and video recordings of more than 130 oral-history interviews with people involved in agriculture and rural life in Illinois. It was produced by the Illinois State Museum's Oral History of Illinois Agriculture (OHIA) project. The OHIA project is generously supported by a National Leadership Grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
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- Changes: Dynamic Illinois Environments
- Earth forces are continually at work causing change. Climate, land, and living things are all connected. They interact with each other in complex ways. Even a small change can start a chain reaction that, over time, has big effects. Scientists study how Illinois' environment has evolved over the last 500 million years and how it continues to change even today. This online version of the Illinois State Museum's natural history hall explores the scientific evidence for environmental change in Illinois. This is available both as a flash-based interactive version, and also a non-flash version.
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 - Harvesting the River
- This rich Web exhibit features the economic history of the central Illinois River communities from Liverpool to Meredosia. It includes waterfowl hunting, commercial fishing, ice harvesting, and musseling. The transportation section includes information about the many kinds of boats that plied the river, early railroads, and plank toll roads. There are short histories of the six towns along the river.
 - Journey to Other Worlds
- This Web exhibit presents vintage photographs and articles describing the everyday and shamanistic life among the native people of Siberia. Quicktime images allow viewers to see all sides of artifacts. Learn about the domestic and spiritual life of these little-seen indigenous people of Russia.
 - Lewis and Clark in Illinois
- Learn about what Lewis and Clark did, whom they met, and what they saw in Illinois during the winter of 1804 when they were preparing for their epic journey to the West.
 - Morton D. Barker Paperweight Collection
- Morton D. Barker, a resident and businessman of Springfield, donated his collection of classical paperweights to the ISM in 1976. The collection of over 150 objects includes excellent examples of millefiori, lampwork, and sulphides. The major glass factories of France and the United States are represented. Learn how each type of paperweight was made.
 - MuseumLink Art Web Exhibits
- The Web exhibits are: Three Chicago Painters - Emil Armin, Bertrude Abercrombie, and Julia Thecla; Two Illinois Photographers - Nathan Lerner and Frank Sadorus; Illinois Quilts and Quilters - Learn about the different styles, eras, and patterns of quilts; Illinois Folk Art - pottery, textiles, paintings, and sculpture made by untrained and trained artists in the 19th century; Victorian Furniture; Themes in Art and Folk Art - Abundance, Remembrance, Coming of Age, and Sense of Place
 - MuseumLink Forests of Illinois
- The Forests online exhibit includes information about prehistoric, historic, and contemporary forests of Illinois. The six types of forests are described and can be viewed in panoramas. The importance of fire, water, and conservation are emphasized. Lesson plans cover forest layers, pollen graph, leaf collection, dye plants, and forests as inspiration for art and literature. There is a field guide to native Illinois trees.
 - MuseumLink Native American Module
- Learn about the Archaic, Woodland, Late Prehistoric and historic eras of Native American lifeways in Illinois. Lesson plans include the topics of foodways, architecture, clothing, rituals, symbols, and games. This is the most thorough exhibit on the Web of Illinois-related Native American information. Activities are also provided for the Cub Scout and Boy Scout badges.
- Museumobile and ISM History
- This exhibit features several articles about the beginnings of the ISM in the 19th century, its growth, and the new natural history exhibit Changes. One page features information and images of the Museumobile, a travelling museum that brought exhibits to the rural areas of Illinois in the 1950s and 60s.
 - Of Time and the River
- "Of Time and the River" is an educational Web site combining geology, archaeology, history, environmental science, and the changing ecology of the Illinois River to tell the story of this river during 12,000 years of human use. Our focus is a problem known as Non-point Source Pollution - pollution in the Illinois River from diffuse sources and not from a single point of origin nor introduced into the river from a specific source.
- State Symbols of Illinois Web Exhibit
- This exhibit features most of the official Illinois state symbols. Each symbol has a page of background. There is an interactive multiple choice game. There are also lesson plans for elementary students that help them become familiar with each symbol.
 - Applique Bedcover Design Lesson
- Using 17-year-old Helen Gilchrist's 1840s applique bedcover as inspiration, and the Classical Revival Period motifs, design your own applique quilt top.
 - Be a Pioneer Lesson
- In this Harvesting the River Online lesson, middle schoolers will play roles of pioneers and make decisions along the way to Illinois and their new home in the mid-1850s.
 - Beautiful and Sublime Landscapes in Illinois
- This lesson from Lewis and Clark in Illinois describes the 18th and 19th century aesthetics that influenced Lewis and Clark when they went West. Look at three of the Museum's 19th century landscapes, then create you own using this aesthetic.
 - Commercial and Sport Hunting Lesson
- This lesson from Harvesting the River Online asks students to look at the abuses of market hunting in the early 20th century led to new laws, which in turn led to sport hunting.
- Compare and Use Maps
Compare and Use Maps lesson shows how maps and other geographic representations and instruments are used to gather information about people, places and environments. Go To RiverWeb, Mississippian, Technology Activities and scroll to the bottom. Click on the pdf link.
 - Decoys - Foul or Fair?
- This discussion lesson introduces students to critical analysis of historical artifacts. Discuss, using photographic examples from the decoy collections of several museums, just how life-like decoys need to be, and which physical characteristics of waterfowl are considered by decoy makers when they create their carvings for hunters to use.
 - Demise of the River Lesson Plan
- In this Harvesting the River Online lesson, students will listen to the audio and video interviews of river people in the Web module's archives and find out what changes these people think led to the end of the fishing and musseling industries and the general degradation of the Illinois River in the 20th century.
 - Design a Piece of Furniture
- Each style period of the 19th century contained its own motifs. After veiwing the Web exhibit and the labeled drawings of a piece from each period, students will look at other pieces of furniture (print sources, home, at stores), identify motifs, and select some to use to create their own unique piece of furniture.
 - European and Native American Mappping Activity
- European and Native American Mapping Activity from Lewis and Clark in Illinois helps students understand how different peoples have different cultural traditions about subjects even as seemingly "scientific" as measuring the land. Lewis and Clark consulted several sources for maps and brought with them scientific tools for measuring land and making maps.
- Finding Historical Design Motifs Lesson Plan pdf
- Study historical and modern furniture styles through images and find historical motifs in modern furniture. Discuss why designs of the 19th century and before persist today, and whether they are worth saving.
 - Forms for Exhibit Creation Lessons
- In the Classroom Exhibit lesson for the Behind the Scenes module, students can print out and use forms to keep records of the objects or specimens they are planning to exhibit.
 - Genre Painting Lesson pdf
- Learn how artists portrayed everyday life in the nineteenth century by painting landscapes peopled with humans and animals doing many activities at once to illustrate the life of the farm or family they were painting.
 - Hexagon Pieced quilt design lesson
- Albert Small used tiny hexagons to create marvelous quilts. Bertha Stenge used traditions hexagons to create oriental-style designs for her quilts. See their quilts on the Keeping Us in Stitches quilt module, then make your own.
 - Historical Object Research Form pdf
- Historians use forms to record information they find out about their historical objects. Students can use this when doing their research on objects of their own for their classroom exhibit.
- How to Use FaunMap Lesson
After looking at the Midwestern United States 16,000 Years Ago Web exhibit, learn how to use the Museum's online FaunMap to discover where species lived in the Ice Ages compared to today. (pdf)(High school) The url of the Museum's Online Research Program <a href="/research/faunmap/">FaunMap</a>
 - Interviewing a Quilter Lesson pdf
- Part of a history unit including quilts might emphasize the human side of quilting. Invite a quilter to the classroom and ask her/him questions about quilting. List and organize your questions to cover the quilter's life, family, reasons for quilting, etc.
- Land Survey Lesson Plan pdf
- Surveyors went through Illinois in the early 1800s, measuring and recording the land and marking it into townships so that the land could be sold to farmers and other settlers.
 - Log Cabin Quilt Block Lesson
- The Log Cabin section of the Museum's Keeping Us in Stitches Quilt module contains many versions of the Log Cabin Block and sets. Play the computer interactive version and/or print out the grid and color your blocks.
 - Make a Model Wigwam Lesson Plan
- Illustrated instructions for making a model of an Eastern Woodlands Native American wigwam. Learn about how Illinois Indians made wigwams in the Native AMerican Web modules.
- Native American Foods and Recipes
Students can plan a weeks meals based on wild and cultivated resources available to a Mississippian farmstead in the early summer based on information provided in The Mississippian Saga of ISM's River Web module. An extension activity would be for students to cook a recipe using these ingredients. Go to RiverWeb, Mississippian, Economy Activities, and scroll to the bottom and click on the pdf link.
 - Ojibwa Sewn Bead Designs Lesson Plan pdf
- Native Americans sewed glass beads onto leather and cloth to decorate clothing and objects. Learn how to sew seed beeds on felt, and go on to decorate your own clothes!
 - Patriotic Applique Design Lesson pdf
- In the mid-nineteenth century, quilters sometimes used patriotic images in their applique quilts. Given one made by 17-year-old Helen Gilchrist, students will choose their own patirotic motifs and create a paper quilt top. There is also an interactive appplique quilt top activity on our web site.
 - People at Work Lesson Plan pdf
- Work was one of the five themes that WPA artists were asked to use in their work. View artworks by the WPA artists on this theme, and create your own painting using the types of jobs we see today.
 - Polymer Clay Trade Bead Lesson pdf
- View the Museum's Frost Trade Bead Collection Online and the Morton Barker Paperweight Collection online to find out how millefiori beads were made from glass, and hos they were traded in America. Create your own beads from polymer clay.
- Polymer Clay Trade Beads Lesson
- Using the Frost Trade Bead Collection Online and the Barker Paperweight Colleciton online, students will learn how millefiori beads are made from glass and will learn to do a similar technique in ploymer clay.
 - Portrait Painting Lesson pdf
- The Museum's Folk Art Web Exhibit contains early Illinois portraits by itinerant painters. Learn how they ran their art businesses in the 19th century.
 - Theorem Painting Lesson pdf
- In the nineteenthe century, theorem paintings were often done by young ladies practicing their painting skills.
 - Unit Plan for Harvesting the River Online
- A unit plan helps high school students explore the social and economic history of the river towns. Each student will role-play an individual in the community while researching a vocation and its place in the community, then write a first person report on their findings. Students can use the audio and video files as well as the Web site narratives as resources in their research.
 - Urban and Rural Life: WPA Art Lesson pdf
- Students will analyze a WPA art work on a rural or urban theme and explain how the artist used the elements of art (line, space, value) to emphasize the theme or mood of the art work.
 - Weaving Beads on a Loom Lesson Plan pdf
- This lesson from the Museum's Native American module focuses on bead weaving techniques. You can buy or construct a bead loom and, using a needle and thread and seed beads, weave a bracelet, ring, or even a necklace.
 - Webquest: Flower Symbolism pdf
- This lesson plan comes from the Barker Paperweight Colleciton online. The lampworked paperweights have floral designs that would have had special meaning when they were made in the nid-mineteenth century. Victorians used the gift of flowers to send messages to people -- messages of love, sympathy, and other emotions. The Internet has many sites dedicated to this idea. You can find the meaning in some of the Museum's decorative arts motifs, or in the floral motifs of your own objects or art.
 - WPA Themes in Art Lesson pdf
- Work, stolen moments, American scene, modern sensibility, and social realism were themes that American artists used in their work for the WPA. Look at some examples and create your own painting on one of the themes.
 - Writing from a Point of View Lesson pdf
- Read a story written from the point of view of a piano's life with a family and then try your hand at writing from the point of view of an inanimate object.
- Applique Quilt Activity
Put patriotic motifs onto the quilt top, position or rotate them, and color them to create an applique quilt like those that Helen Gilchrist, age 17, did in 1842. Based on the Gilchrist bedcover in the Museum's collection. This activity requires a flash plugin on your computer, which may be downloaded for free on the Macromedia site.
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