McHistory Podcast
1) McHistory: 'King of Swedes' kept Bloomington streets clean
Wherever humans gather, there is garbage. And getting rid of it is a challenge. The start of trash removal in Bloomington dates to the start of the 20th century and to a man known in his day as the Ki...Show More
2) McHistory: Housekeeper for the affluent and the tawdry
The way Black people were treated in Bloomington-Normal got a lot worse in the 20th century than in the years before, and that's saying something. Those conditions produced jarring juxtapositions in p...Show More
3) McHistory: Press Butler the great detective
One doesn’t think of Bloomington and central Illinois as a lurid hotbed of crime. But it certainly seems it could have been that way during the mid-to-late 1800s as portrayed by the three city newspap...Show More
4) McHistory: George Hoagland’s 'Oil of Gladness'
Coming from nothing, an illiterate Black man from Bloomington-Normal — long before the civil rights movement — found a niche in the national market for cleaning products. In this episode of the WGLT f...Show More
5) McHistory: Multitalented suffrage leader promoted women’s health and the vote
Ellen Ferguson was a champion of women and women's suffrage. She made Bloomington-Normal her home in the 1870s.
McHistory: Multitalented suffrage leader promoted women’s health and the vote
05:14 | Feb 18th, 2022
6) McHistory: A Bloomington huckster's best-selling 'medicine' was Blackberry Balsam
Bloomington-Normal has a long and distinguished history of business entrepreneurship. One less than distinguished, but very successful, business, had a continent-wide spread in the late 1800s.
McHistory: A Bloomington huckster's best-selling 'medicine' was Blackberry Balsam
06:02 | Jan 12th, 2022
7) McHistory: Noted author Harold Sinclair of Bloomington
Bloomington-Normal has a tie to famed actor John Wayne and legendary filmmaker John Ford — a hardware store clerk turned noted author, Harold Sinclair.
8) McHistory: Early Settlers Battled Prairie Fire To Tame The Land
There is not much prairie left in Illinois. Once, there was a waving sea of tall perennial flowers and grasses across much of the state. Now there is .01% of the original prairie left in Illinois.
9) McHistory: Dr. William Hill, A Man Of Many Contradictions
A 19th century Bloomington doctor was a respected physician who was accused of stealing corpses.
10) McHistory: Sigmund Livingston And The Anti-Defamation League
In 1913, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded in Bloomington to stop the defamation of Jewish people by appealing to minds, morals, and the law. Sigmund Livingston served as its first director...Show More