In Bloomington, Illinois, the McLean County Museum of History grew from an 1892 historical society founded to study local history into an accredited museum, research center, and archive preserving about 18,000 objects on McLean County from prehistoric times to the present. Housed since 1991 in the restored former county courthouse, it also embodies the history of the courthouse square, where earlier courthouses dated to 1831 and 1836, and where the present building emerged after the 1868 courthouse was rebuilt following the 1900 downtown fire. Its exhibitions, library, archives, educational programs, and changing displays connect local settlement, law, agriculture, community life, and Abraham Lincoln’s county ties.