Peoria Riverfront Museum – Aaron

03/09/2020 1:04 AM

One super fun thing that I did this past week was visit the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Even though I am a sophomore I had never actually made my way downtown to visit the museum. To start off there is free parking which is a huge plus. I didn’t have to worry about finding a spot or putting my parallel parking skills to the test (Hint: that would not have gone well). I also went with my girlfriend during a time where the museum offered free admission to Bradley University students so it made for an awesome date, where no one had to spend any money.

For starters the museum is deceptively large, I was actually shocked at how open and spacious it was, there were around five or six small exhibits and things to do. I think part of that problem was the museum and the Caterpillar Visitors Center share the same building and the divide is not clear from the outside. Even though there was a small number of things to do, time absolutely flew by. Our first stop was a photography exhibit called “Vantage Points: Contemporary Photography,” featuring famous photographs from the 1970s to early 2000s from the Whitney Museum of American Art. The photographs from famous photographs such as Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethrope, Sally Mann, Diane Arbus, Gregory Crewdson, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, and Richard Avedon. I am not a very deep person when it comes to photographs and art, but being an amateur photographer myself I can appreciate a good picture, and they were all amazing.

The next exhibit we stopped at was called “MOON,” simply put it was all about different cultures views of the moon and the journey that led to the United States landing on the Moon. I absolutely loved this exhibit because I am a huge nerd when it comes to space travel. So any exhibit that features space travel, especially in the golden age of the space race, instantly captures my attention. This exhibit provided a wonderful story of how the United States ended up on the moon and how different cultures view space travel. Additionally in the dome theatre, there was a presentation going through the different Apollo missions and exploring different moons that NASA and other space agencies have sent spacecraft to.

There was a brief exhibit on the history of Peoria, it was really interesting to read about how this city started. Especially not being an Illinois native, I felt like I really learned a lot about the history of Peoria, what brought the city up, and what the city really cares about. I really enjoyed learning about how Peoria was affected by the prohibition, given that there were a lot of breweries and distilleries here. I also got to learn that Peoria produced the first-ever, working, gasoline-powered car.

Finally, we headed over to the Illinois River Encounter exhibit, which is a permanent exhibit that focuses on the Illinois River that flows through Peoria. I got to learn about the different wildlife, trades, and history of the Peoria and Peoria river. Apparently, the reason that the Peoria river was formed was a freak accident resulting from a series of retreating and advancing glaciers, then a huge chunk broke off and caused this massive flood and the water just went crazy forming what we know to be the Illinois river valley.

That was the extent of my visit, the museum was super awesome and way better than I could have ever expected. I want to go back sometime and make my way over to the Caterpillar Visitors Center, and also explore the scale model of the solar system that is built-in central Illinois.