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Bureau County
Nicole Shofner
In 1900 Sam and Anne Poole Clark founded the Bureau County Historical Society. The Museum was located in the basement of the Bureau County Courthouse from 1938 to 1948. By 1948 the society was running out of space in the courthouse basement. The Clarks's daughter, Grace, and her husband, Alfred Norris, moved into the Clarks's retirement home in the early 1900s. When Grace passed away in 1946, she left the home to be used as a museum. In 1971 it was renovated. One of the challenges that the society faced as they moved into the new museum was where to house all the exhibits. It was troublesome transporting artifacts from the courthouse to the new building located across the street. In addition, new lighting and plumbing was needed. The museum is self-supported and everything in it has been donated. The directors rely on donations from local citizens to help keep the museum going. What is so distinctive about the collections is that the cases are well lighted and displayed. The house next to the museum has been purchased to house the overflow of artifacts in the original museum; however, the annex will be renovated because it is old. In the museum, there are more than sixteen exhibits as well as a gift shop with souvenirs. Some of the exhibits help visitors understand that cooking and dining utensils and furniture were made of wood. In the back room on the third floor, guests will find the space Grace Poole used to store food and accessories. Next to that room is a room to which gentlemen guests retired to play cards and smoke cigars following dinner parties. Grace did not allow that downstairs. In the clothing room, Grace's wedding dress is prominently displayed. A variety of her dresses and shoes are also on display. Downstairs, where Grace held her dinner parties, many antique tables and chairs representing historical eras are located. The space is large because Grace occasionally served more than one hundred people at her dinner parties. In the Native American room, pottery hand-crafted by local Native Americans is on display. The room also includes displays of beaded pouches and a wide variety of arrowheads, many found by local farmers. One favorite room is the doll room where a wide variety of porcelain dolls are displayed. One doll actually has a glass face. Another famous exhibit is the Imke photography display.
Princeton resident Grace Norris bequeathed her home to the Bureau County Historical Society. Norris left instructions that the house
was to be used as a museum. The museum houses sixteen exhibits, featuring artifacts that have been donated to the historical society.
The Bureau County Historical Museum is part of the county's history. It is also a very interesting place to visit.—[From Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, Bureau of Tourism, Bureau County Historical Society; Bureau County Historical Society files, Princeton, Illinois; The Princeton Tourism Board and the Bureau County Historical Society, Welcome to the Bureau County Historical Society Museum; student historian's interview with Virginia Diller (tour guide). Dec. 1998.]
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