About

About the County Historical Museum and Archival Library

The Museum and Archival Library buildings and collections belong to the Madison County Historical Society. Through a lease agreement, Madison County provides funding to help make the collections available to the public. The Museum Department staff report to the Madison County Board.

The Museum is housed in the 1836 Weir House. Designated in 1985 as a National Historic Place, the house is the second oldest brick home in Edwardsville. The Museum is currently closed while the Madison County Historical Society renovates the Weir House. To see online museum exhibitions, visit the Madison County Historical Society Online Exhibits webpage.

The Archival Library houses a variety of primary and secondary resources. The collections include diaries, correspondence, family Bibles, manuscripts, legal documents, photographs, newspapers, scrapbooks, school and church records, maps, photographs, and other documents. The library also houses over 4,000 reference sources, including early county histories and biographies, local histories, family and house histories, church and business histories, cemetery inventories, and more. Resources primarily pertain to Madison County, Illinois, and constituent locations, with some information about neighboring counties and about the state of Illinois. For more information about library resources, visit the Madison County Historical Society Archival Library Resources webpage.