The Illinois State Museum features the life, land, people and art of the

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. The headquarters museum is located on Spring and Edwards Streets, one block southwest of the

Illinois State Capitol The Illinois State Capitol, located in Springfield, Illinois, houses the legislative and executive branches of the government of the U.S. state of Illinois. The current building is the sixth to serve as the capitol building since Illinois was a ...

, in Springfield. There are three satellite locations:

Dickson Mounds Dickson Mounds is a Native American settlement site and burial mound complex near Lewistown, Illinois. It is located in Fulton County on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River. It is a large burial complex containing at least two cemeteri ...

in Lewistown, the Lockport Gallery in Lockport, and the ISM's Research and Collections Center in Springfield. In addition to natural history exhibits, the main museum in Springfield focuses on the state's cultural and artistic heritage. Exhibits include local

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

, household displays from different historic periods,

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s of Native American life,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

artifacts, and a collection of glass

paperweights A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with Chinese calligraphy). While any object, such as a stone, ...

. Due to Illinois budgetary challenges, the Illinois State Museum was temporarily closed from October 2015 to June 2016. After adopting an admission fee, the flagship museum reopened on July 2, 2016. The fee is waived for children and veterans. The Chicago Gallery and the Southern Illinois Artisans Gallery were not reopened.

Dickson Mounds

The Dickson Mounds Museum, located in Lewistown, is an archaeological museum of Illinois's Native American history. Exhibits include hands-on displays, dioramas, photos and artifacts that depict area cultures from the Ice-Age to the 19th century. The museum grounds comprise including the Eveland Village, the excavated remains of three early Native American buildings.

Lockport Gallery

The Lockport Gallery, located in Lockport, features changing exhibitions of past and contemporary Illinois artists and artisans. The gallery is located in the 1850 Norton Building, which was originally used to house grain, a supply store, and a dormitory for canal crews. The building functioned as a grain-processing facility until the 1950s. The gallery was temporarily closed in October 2015.

Southern Illinois Art & Artisans Center

The main gallery of the Southern Illinois Art & Artisans Center is the Southern Illinois Art Gallery, which features changing exhibits of contemporary and history Illinois artists, as well as fine art, decorative art and ethnographic art from the collections of the Illinois State Museum. The center also features the Southern Illinois Artisans Shop, which sells fine crafts from Illinois artisans and offers artisan workshops, demonstrations, and special arts and crafts events. The center is located in Whittington, near

Rend Lake Rend Lake is a long, wide reservoir located in Southern Illinois in Franklin and Jefferson Counties near the town of Benton. It contains 18,900 acres (76 km2) of water, stores of water, and supplies over 15 million gallons of water per ...

. The center was closed in October 2015, and has not been reopened.

ISM Chicago Gallery

The ISM Chicago Gallery, located in the James R. Thompson Center in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, featured changing exhibits of fine and decorative arts. The gallery was closed in October 2015, and was not reopened.

History

The Illinois State Museum was founded on May 25, 1877, as a showcase within the sixth Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, which was completed at that time.

Amos Henry Worthen Amos Henry Worthen (1813–1888) was an American geologist and paleontologist from Illinois. He was the second state geologist of Illinois and the first curator of the Illinois State Museum. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Ad ...

was first curator. As the state's government grew, the museum collection was moved from the Capitol Building to the newly constructed Centennial Building, now known as the Michael Howlett building, in 1923. With continued growth of its collections, and the need to have a dedicated location in Springfield for tourists and school groups, the state began construction of its first purpose-built state museum in 1961. The building was completed in 1962. This building is the current Illinois State Museum. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Illinois State Museum expanded to also open four satellite museums. The Dickson Mounds Museum, near Lewistown, Illinois, specializes in the

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

of the Native Americans of the

Illinois River The Illinois River ( mia, Inoka Siipiiwi) is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River and is approximately long. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, it has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the ...

valley, while the museums in Chicago, Lockport, and Rend Lake largely contain rotating exhibitions of Illinois-based fine arts and crafts.

Governance

Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, by executive order in 1995, made the State Museum part of the new

Illinois Department of Natural Resources The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the state parks and state recreation areas, enforces the fishing and game laws of Illinois, regulates Illinois coal mines ...

(IDNR). The Illinois State Museum is, as of January 2019, a division of IDNR and consists of four museum facilities: the flag ship Museum and the Research and Collections Center in Springfield,

in Lewistown, and the Lockport Gallery in Lockport. The Museum has its own 11-member board, appointed by the

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

with the advice and consent of the

Illinois State Senate The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the ...

Mission statement

The Illinois State Museum is charged by state law with the responsibility "to collect and preserve objects of scientific and artistic value, representing past and present

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

and

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. ...

, the life and work of man, geological history, natural resources, and the manufacturing and fine arts; to interpret for and educate the public concerning the foregoing." 20 ILCS 801/1-25(19), state law accessed May 1, 2008
/ref>

Repatriation of objects to Australia

In late October 2019 the first collection of many sacred artifacts belonging to

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

held in US museums were returned by the Illinois Museum. As the first phase of a larger project, 42 Aranda and Bardi Jawi objects were sent first to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, before being returned to

central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

, from where they were taken around 1920.

References

External links

* {{authority control

Art museums and galleries in Illinois Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria an ...

Natural history museums in Illinois Native American museums in Illinois Museums in Springfield, Illinois Museums established in 1877 1877 establishments in Illinois Paleontology in Illinois