GLEN CARBON - 2024 has been a year of continuous growth for the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum, with increased event attendance, social media presence, and more. With plans for a new children’s space, upcoming programs and much more, the home of Glen Carbon’s history is also focused on its future.
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Museum Coordinator Samantha Doolin gave trustees an update on the status of the museum and its events during her annual presentation to the Glen Carbon Village Board on Tuesday. She also discussed the results of their June 2024 community survey and announced some exciting projects going forward.
One of their current projects is the transformation of Room 3 in the museum (formerly known as the “Doll Room”) which Doolin said will act as an interactive play area for children designed to look and operate like a storefront.
“We’re working to remodel this room into a play grocery store,” Doolin said. “It’ll be sort of geared off of the historical general and grocery stores that line South Main Street … it’ll include a deli counter, checkout conveyor belt, grocery baskets, and aprons so you get all the fun of dress-up. This will help widen our audience as well.”
While broadening their family appeal with the new kids’ space, Doolin said the museum’s social media reach has also been consistently expanding since its Facebook page was set up two years ago. Not only are they steadily gaining followers and boasting higher-than-average levels of post engagement, but they’ve even seen a 22% increase in viewership on their landing page on the village website.
The community also remains engaged with the museum outside of the internet, with Doolin noting the rising number of in-person visitors each year and the responsiveness to June’s survey. Some of the museum’s future programming may be directly inspired by the latest survey responses, including a possible spotlight on the women of Glen Carbon’s history, historical workshops for kids, and much more.
The Glen Carbon Heritage Museum also continues its partnership with SIUE, providing historical documents for various courses, and has been working since last June on its own localized version of the Madison County Historical Society’s atlas mapping project, which seeks to identify locations around the county illustrated in an 1873 atlas available in the State of Illinois digital archives.
These and several other projects continue as the museum also keeps at its regular work of archiving historical documents and records while innovating ways to make them easier for visitors and researchers to find. Of course, none of the museum’s many offerings or its steady post-pandemic growth would be possible without the hard work and dedication of its staff and volunteers.
“Our volunteers are essential to the functioning of the museum,” Doolin said. “During 2023-24, we have had three student workers, three interns and two more interns are scheduled for the fall. They’re really helping me work through things and they’re gaining museum experience necessary for their own careers.
“We’ve also seen the addition of five volunteers, and our volunteers thus far have worked 421 hours.”
Mayor Bob Marcus thanked Doolin and everyone involved in supporting the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum for continuing to make it a success.
“We appreciate all your hard work and all that you do,” the mayor said. “You have increased events, increased attendance, increased participation - we’re really happy with what you do.”
A full recording of the July 23, 2024 Glen Carbon Village Board meeting, including Doolin’s entire presentation, is available here.
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