Museums In Chicago

This new world-class museum is dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the Holocaust and teaching current generations about the need to fight hatred, indifference and genocide in today’s world.

The Illinois State Museum is the official museum of the natural history of the U.S. State of Illinois. The headquarters museum is located on Spring and Edwards Streets, one block southwest of the Illinois State Capitol, in Springfield, the state capital. There are satellite museums in Chicago, Dickson Mounds, Lockport, and Rend Lake.

Set in a magnificent mansion, the International Museum of Surgical Science is both informative and interesting in presenting the history of medicine from 2000 B.C. to modern times.  It also has a wonderful collection of sculpture, paintings and illustrations.  Its exhibits include a turn-of-the-century apothecary shop, an early 20^th Century dentist’s office, medical imaging machinery and much more.

Modeled after settlement houses in London, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr built their "Hull House" in 1889 in what was then a poor, immigrant district of Chicago.

This interactive museum illustrates the life and times of John Dillinger and other gangsters during the 1930’s depression era and shows advancements made in crime fighting technology during the first 30 years of the 20th century.

In recognition for its outstanding exhibits and impact on Chicago land families, Kohl Children’s Museum was recently named one of the country’s Ten Best Children’s Museums by Parents Magazine. The Museum was ranked sixth out of more than 300 children’s museums nationwide and was the only Chicago area museum recognized.

The Kohl McCormick StoryBus is a children's literacy museum on wheels that visits schools and community events in the Chicago area. Housed inside a 37-foot Winnebago, the bus promotes reading to students at the kindergarten and pre-k levels. Filled with a rotating collection of hands-on interactive exhibits, the StoryBus transports children inside the worlds of favorite children's stories, such as The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The Lizzadro Museum displays gemstone treasures created by ancient craftsmen as well as by contemporary artists. The building itself is a gem, designed to resemble a jewel box in a park setting.

Walking the quiet and elegant halls, visitors to the Loyola University Museum of Art are often captivated by a sense of peace and unmistakable admiration for the stunning collection gracing the walls in this little known but internationally regarded museum. Loyola University's Museum of Art honors a long-standing Jesuit Mission and "Is dedicated to helping men and women of all creeds explore the roots of their own faith and spiritual quest."

The McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum celebrates Chicago’s river and world-famous movable bridges by shining light on their significance to the city. Beginning at river level and spiraling five stories up, the Museum provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to explore a historic landmark bridgehouse.

At river level, visitors can view the massive gears of Chicago’s most famous movable bridge and then journey through time as they experience the story of the Chicago River. Once at the top of the Bridgehouse, visitors are treated to magnificent 360o views of the city and river, and will gain a whole new perspective on the beauty and complexity that is Chicago.
Credit: © Cesar Russ Photography

This Venue may be closed, please call before you go there!!

The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum inspires visitors to better understand freedom and the value the role the First Amendment plays in protecting freedom for future generations.
The Freedom Museum has changed its name to the McCormick Freedom Project. The new name better reflects their mission and scope of services.

McDonald's #1 Store Museum is a recreation of the first McDonald's Restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois by McDonald's Corporation founder, Ray Kroc, on April 15, 1955. 

This is a city that boasts the second largest Mexican population in the United States. To sample its rich culture you need only travel to the Pilsen neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside to enjoy a breathtaking collection of art found at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. You’ll be amazed at the bright and vivid colors in the paintings and stand in awe of the craftsmanship behind the sculpture. And you’ll learn some fascinating things about the rich history and diverse people of Mexico.

Four floors of over forty galleries of art are rotated regularly with works from antiquity to the present in the Museum's far-reaching Collection. Included in the Collection are 15th- to 20th-century European and 17th- to 20th-century American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, decorative arts, photographs, and folk and self-taught art. Among the best in the nation are the Museum’s holding of American decorative arts, German Expressionism, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960. The Museum also holds one of the largest collections of works by Wisconsin native Georgia O’Keeffe.

The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian originates from the collections of John Mayo Mitchell and his wife Betty Seabury Mitchell. Over the last 31 years, the Mitchell Museum has evolved into a cherished resource of collections and activities that introduce visitors from throughout the Chicago region to the cultures of Native American Indians.

Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, the Modern Wing provides a new home for the museum’s collection of 20th- and 21st-century art. Now a decade in the making, this 264,000 square-foot building makes the Art Institute the second largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum’s world-renowned collections of modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. The extraordinary scope and quality of these collections are a revelation; each displayed more comprehensively than ever before.

One of the nation's largest facilities devoted to the art of our time, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) offers exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art created since 1945. The MCA documents contemporary visual culture through painting, sculpture, photography, video and film, and performance.

Within the walls of Chicago’s Columbia College you will find the only museum in the country dedicated to the art of still and moving photography. Some of the most amazing photo art projects in the country are displayed here.