Wabash County Museum
Address: 320 N Market Street Mt. Carmel, IL
Phone: 618-262-8774
The Wabash County Museum began in 1991 after a voter’s referendum passed to create a museum district. The local historical society had a museum which had closed due to lack of funding and volunteers. The new museum is a museum district and levies for tax support each year from the Wabash County residents. This gives a budget of about $30,000 to operate on, which includes a part-time employee, insurance, utilities, and any maintenance on the building at 320 North Market Street in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, the county seat. The museum rebuilt its website in 2020 (the 3rd one) and set up a site for audio and video tours within the museum. There are currently 17 permanent exhibits and space for one or two rotating exhibits. The museum also maintains a Facebook page.
The Collections Care Manager works 20 hours per week and maintains the collection database and the collection items. Each item is photographed or scanned into the database, given an accession number and housed safely on permanent safe shelving. Most items are housed in acid free boxes or folders. Currently there are around 30,000 items in the database. Items may be donated to the museum at any time if they are Wabash County related and are able to be cared for by the staff. Persons donating items must fill out a deed of gift, giving the museum the right to hold the items in its possession.
