Online Exhibits and Offerings

ISM Web Offerings: Zoology

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).

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.

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.

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.

Mazon Creek Fossils Web Exhibit

This web exhibit features images of fossils of plants and animals from the Mazon Creek area of northern Illinois. These fossils formed inside concretions; some of them even show the soft tissues that usually do not become fossilized. From this fossil evidence, scientists have reconstructed ancient environments of Illinois.

Midwestern U.S. 16,000 Years Ago Web Exhibit

This Web exhibit features the extinct large mammals such as mammoths and mastodons, as well as smaller mammals that live here today. It explains the four possible reasons for extinction.

MuseumLink Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Behind the Scenes lets students learn about museum careers of curator, preparator, director, resesarch assistant, and other jobs involved with running a museum. It offers descriptions of the ISM collections and research programs in Botany, Zoology, Anthropology, Geology, and Art. There is sections on how to mount an exhibit, how to restore an object, how donations are handled, how exhibit murals are made, and how prehistoric environments and lifeways are reconstructed from evidence. Suggestions are given for students to create an exhibit and research objects.

MuseumLink Prairies in Illinois

This exhibit traces the various types of Illinois prairie through time. Conservation and preservation are emphasized. Lesson plans for all grades include activities on surveying, plant adaptations, dye plants, poetry, and prairie restoration. There is a field guide of prairie flowers.

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.

Prairies in the Prairie State Web Exhibit

This exhibit is a detailed look at Illinois prairie plants and animals. It focuses on Midewin Prairie, a restoration in progress on the property of the old Joliet arsenal. Insects, birds, and mammals are featured.

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.