The Madison County Historical Museum and Archival Library offer resources for county residents, former residents, students, educators and visitors looking for information on Madison County history. The library collections owned by the Society include over 10,000 photographs, 1,400 boxes of probate files, hundreds of maps and plats showing early Madison County property owners, thousands of books and family documents like diaries, letters, business records, and other one-of-a-kind source materials like records from a company of local Civil War soldiers. Museum collections have over 20,000 artifacts including Native American and military items, products manufactured by Madison County businesses, portraits, furnishings, clothing, and unique items of special historic value like the piano once owned by Elijah Lovejoy.

While the museum is under renovation, museum materials can be seen in numerous on-line exhibits and in other public facilities. The staff continues to work with the collections, assist in planning exhibits for the new museum and creating new exhibits for the court house display cases. Recent topics for exhibits at the Madison County Courthouse and Administration Building have included an African-American History in Madison County before 1900, labor history, and stories of Madison County resorts. Some of these exhibits are also connected to a related on-line exhibit. During this time the Archival Library remains open to serve the public. Visitors come in person or contact the library by mail/phone looking for information about their families, their buildings, a business, or many other aspects of Madison County history. Students come to learn about the use of source documents or to research a topic for their classroom. Instructors sometimes bring entire classes from SIUE, or local area schools. Whether the visitor is an author researching a book, or a grade school student completing a family history assignment, one thing they all have in common is that they all come to learn, and they all leave knowing something they didn’t know before. Most staff members have spent decades doing historical research focused on Madison County so are especially qualified to assist patrons.

In addition to the artifacts and documents at the museum and library, Society volunteers offer a program of speakers throughout the year and an annual Dining in History event that takes participants to a historic place where they are served a delicious meal followed by a program about the venue. They also offer a number of programs for local organizations and are in the process of expanding their educational outreach programs to bring information to classrooms and organizations interested in programs on Madison County history.

The Society also has benefits for members which include six issues annually of the MCHS News, an award-winning newsletter that focuses on a different aspect of Madison County with each issue. Issues in recent years have explored the history of the Civil War prison in Alton, coal mining, the Flu Epidemic of 1918, and the fate of orphans a century ago in Madison County.