While it doesn’t always get the attention that is given to The Art Institute, the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, or the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago History Museum offers a wonderful collection of history and artifacts from hundreds of years of Chicago’s timeline. There’s something for everyone here. I particularly liked the exhibit on the Great Chicago Fire, including the maps that show how fast it ravaged the city. The dioramas were also so amazingly detailed. The museum is located right on the edge of Lincoln Park, so it is easily accessible from the Zoo. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to envision the future of Chicago by learning from its past.

A complicated and sometimes mixed museography. The rooms are well presented but they lack a good common thread. Some repeated elements. The place is beautiful and the staff is very friendly. You can spend time and learn a little

My wife and I are very fortunate. We live in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. From our dining room window, we can see the Chicago History Museum at 1601 North Clark Street, at the corner of Clark and North Avenue, on the fringe of Lincoln Park. We also are fortunate because we are members of the museum. We make regular visits to have breakfast or lunch and view the new exhibits and other historical collections that document the history of Chicago. The museum, which includes a cafe and book store, is open from 9:30 to 4:30 Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. Founded in 1856, much of the museum's first collection was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, including Abraham Lincoln's final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. But the museum rose from the ashes. Today, among the permanent items on display are Lincoln's deathbed, clothing that Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln wore on the evening of his assassination, pieces of furniture from the room in the Petersen House where Lincoln died and the table on which General Robert E. Lee signed his 1965 surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Also on permanent display are the first passenger car to operate on the Chicago L system and the Pioneer, the first locomotive to operate in Chicago. Chicago: Crossroads of America is a 16,000-square-foot space that explores the city's development an its relationship to and influence on American history. All told, the museum houses 23 million objects in its collection. Current exhibits include Back Home: Polish Chicago, an overview of the city's Polish community, one of the largest in the country; City on Fire: Chicago 1871, recalling the Great Chicago Fire; Facing Freedom in America; Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s and 1970s; and Aqui en Chicago, a new project that celebrates the historically persistent cultural presence of Latino communities in Chicago. There's never a dull moment when you visit the Chicago History Museum.

This museum is very easy to get to from the CTA stop. It's only two floors, with the second having the most to see. Very much enjoyed learning all about Chicago, the great fire, the riots, the train history, the meat packing history, immigration, racism, the start of Special Olympics and more. It's a very relatable museum. Our whole family found something of interest there. Definitely recommend.

It was very interesting visit Chicago History Museum after we had such a great introduction to Chicago history by wonderful Chicago Architecture Center docents. Keep in mind that Chicago Architecture Center members get free admission in the Chicago History Museum through reciprocal NARM membership. It was fascinating to trace history of many Chicago famous businesses, such as Marshall Field and Company, Tiffany’s, Crate and Barrel, Pullman, etc. The museum is not crowded and a pleasure to visit.

The museum is very special and absolutely worth a visit! Public transport is relatively close, as it is a bit out of town, at the south end of Lincoln Park. We booked the tickets online in advance, from Europe, which worked out great. The value for money is great! We were only here for two hours but would recommend twice the duration. We would have stayed longer if we hadn’t come so close to closing, because the ticket is not valid for a certain time but only for a fixed date. The story of Chicago is told in a super interesting way and everything is easy to understand even if English is not your own native language. In between there are always small interactive possibilities, video sequences, etc.

Our CAC Architecture cruise piqued our interest in the Great Chicago Fire. We decided to check out the Chicago History Museum’s exhibit the following day. Geared toward families, the exhibit gives a play-by-play of the events, with many first-hand accounts and artifacts on display. The highlight for me was a room-sized cyclorama depicting a Chicago River fire scene in minute detail. We also enjoyed the museum’s permanent exhibit with the first "L" car and history of the city starting with its days as a fort on the bank of Lake Michigan. Overall, the Chicago History Museum was a great was to spend a morning.

I have searched my uber-critical mind and can report here that I have found something to complain about! Hooray! I arrived at 2pm, and the wonderful movie showed at every hour through 1:30 and then. It again until 3:30! So I missed it. Haha. This is a good municipal And Americana Museum with a focus on the Midwest American experience of Immigration. I liked especially the sensitive but not overly patronizing sensitivity to the American Indians’ loss of basically everything to this “American experience” of westward expansion and growth.

As we were planning our trip to Chicago I wanted something to teach us a bit about Chicago. As awesome as the other museums were, most could be anywhere in the country, but we traveled to Chicago, and I wanted to include something to learn about the city. And that is why this got 5 stars. My wife and I both said "We should have done this first." We had heard about the Chicago fire, but this one explained what it really was. We knew about music in Chicago, but this had a whole display about it. It really gave us insight into what made this city special. It is not huge, not overloaded with stuff, but a solid museum to teach a bit about the city we were spending a week in. It also was not crowded, after a week in other museums, it was great to have a less crowded, quieter, slower place to spend a couple hours. If you are from out of town, or don't know much about the city of Chicago, this should be on your "to do" list of things to see.