Masks required in Abakanowicz Research Center; optional for rest of Museum MORE

Close
buy tickets

Exhibitions at CHM

See what the Museum has to offer, both in-person and online!

Featured exhibition

Back Home: Polish Chicago

Temporary Exhibition - 2nd Floor - Opened May 20, 2023

Through the lens of Chicago’s Polish communities, experience the journeys immigrants have taken to get to the city, the ways they have established themselves in its neighborhoods, and the duality of feeling a deep connection to two places at once.

Learn More
Performers at Christian Millennium Celebration at Soldier Field
City on Fire entrance wall

featured exhibition

City on Fire: Chicago 1871

Designed for families to learn, explore, and discover the impact the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 had on the city and the people who lived here.

Learn More
1944.140; TIN.1473;1999.120

featured exhibition

Haunted Dolls 2: The Riddles of the Wayward Spirit

As you explore \"Chicago: Crossroads of America,\" find the dolls, solve the riddles using your knowledge of Chicago history, and help us put an end to this wayward spirit\'s sinister plan!

Learn More
Exhibition-Democracy Limited-Silent Sentinnels
Online Exhibition

Democracy Limited: Chicago Women & the Vote

A century after ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Chicago History Museum invites visitors to explore women’s activism in Chicago to secure the right to vote—and beyond.
Harold Washington-swearing in-st17500790_e1
Online Exhibition

Harold Washington and the 1983 Chicago Mayoral Election

On April 29, 1983, Harold Washington was inaugurated as the 51st Mayor of Chicago, becoming the first African American to hold the city’s highest office.
Puerto Ricans march around City Hall
Online Exhibition

It Was a Rebellion: Chicago’s Puerto Rican Community in 1966

The Division Street Rebellion, which began on June 12, 1966, deeply affected how Puerto Ricans came to understand themselves and their place in the city of Chicago.
Indigenous pamphlets_i182641_pm
Online Exhibition

Cataloging Indigenous-related Pamphlets at the Chicago History Museum

Putting the principles of critical librarianship into practice by cataloging a collection of 13 folders containing 80 miscellaneous pamphlets relating to Indigenous peoples.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, president of Operation PUSH, announces the first PUSH Expo
Online Exhibition

Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH

Founded in Chicago by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Operation PUSH has been one of the most important social justice organizations in the United States since 1971.
Exhibition-GAC-Drag-ICHi-062204
Online Exhibition

Drag in the Windy City

This collection of photographs of drag performers and events was donated to the Chicago History Museum by James C. Darby, a former Navy cryptographer and radioman who served during the Korean War and started the first Chicago chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America (GLBVA) in 1991.

Exhibition-GAC-Vivian Maier-i181633_pm
Online Exhibition

Vivian Maier: Her Chicago

Vivian Maier was an amateur photographer whose perceptive eye revealed her profound understanding of the human condition, and her artistry captured the hearts of aficionados and casual viewers alike.
Reid Family Portrait
Online Exhibition

“Concert is Power”

This two-part story series recounts the history of Chicago’s first Black generation, highlighting the struggles that free African American men and women confronted in Illinois and the resilience they showed as they fought for their vision of equality.
Exhibition-GAC-Lyric Opera Amistad-i176667_pm
Online Exhibition

The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s World Premiere of Amistad

In 1997, the renowned Lyric Opera of Chicago company debuted the very first opera of its kind—a work especially commissioned to retell the 1839 story of the slave ship, La Amistad, whose captives revolted and changed the course of history.

Exhibition-GAC-Joseph H Jackson-library
Online Exhibition

Reverend Joseph H. Jackson

Reverend Joseph H. Jackson was a renowned African American pastor and civil rights leader of the twentieth century, whose activism focused on education, housing, and economic and political equality.
Exhibition-GAC-Thing-Cover7-crop
Online Exhibition

Thing: She Knows Who She Is

Thing magazine was founded as a platform for Black LGBTQ+ life. Its issues are full of art, poetry, interviews and commentary centering Black culture, LGBTQ+ culture, HIV/AIDS activism, drag, camp, and more.
Exhibition-GAC-Blues-Buddy Guy
Online Exhibition

Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago was a prime destination for Southern migrants between 1940 and 1970, and one major result was the Chicago Electric Blues.
Exhibition-GAC-Making Mainbocher-dress back
Online Exhibition

Making Mainbocher

Born in Chicago in 1890, Main Rousseau Bocher was an unlikely man to become a couturier, by 1931 his designs were presented in the fashion press alongside those by Vionnet, Molyneux, and Chanel.
Exhibition-GAC-Chicago-Great-War
Online Exhibition

Chicago and the Great War

World War I, or the \"Great War,\" claimed more than 17 million lives, including more than 4,000 men and women from Cook County.
Exhibition-GAC-Charles James-tree inside
Online Exhibition

Charles James: Genius Deconstructed

To get inside couturier Charles James’s mind, Museum staff sought to uncover the secrets held by some of his most iconic pieces. We studied them. Turned them inside out. Sketched, photographed, X-rayed, and recreated them.
Exhibit-GAC-wheel with a view
Online Exhibition

A Wheel With A View

Celebrated as a technological marvel, Chicago\'s Ferris wheel has stood as an enduring symbol of the 1893 World\'s Columbian Exposition.
Exhibition-GAC-Culinary Touring-menu banner2
Online Exhibition

Touring Chicago’s Culinary History

Come with us back in time through Chicago’s restaurant history with a tour of the Chicago History Museum\'s historical menu collection.
Exhibit-GAC-streetcar
Online Exhibition

Ride Around Chicago: A City in Transition

Elmer Whiting, a Chicago streetcar conductor, kept a detailed diary throughout 1894, providing a window into the city\'s complex history in the decades after the Great Fire.
Exhibit-GAC-1968 protestors in Grant Park
Online Exhibition

Chicago 1968: Law and Disorder

At the Democratic National Convention in August 1968, delegates came to the city to select their presidential candidate, while activists gathered to protest US policies at home and abroad.
Exhibition-Online-SE Chicago Storytelling
Online Exhibition

Southeast Chicago Archive & Storytelling Project

The Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project highlights a remarkable collection of objects, gathered and preserved by residents of a steel mill community as its industrial base was collapsing.
Chicago-00-Riverwalk
Online Exhibition

Chicago ØØ

The Chicago 00 Project is a series of site-specific, interactive, immersive multimedia experiences designed to showcase the Museum\'s film, photo, and sound archive and share Chicago stories in new and unique ways.
Dramas-of-Haymarket
Online Exhibition

The Dramas of Haymarket

The Dramas of Haymarket examines selected materials from the Museum\'s Haymarket Affair digital collection and places them in historical context.
A-House-Divided-Join-Us-Brothers
Online Exhibition

A House Divided

A House Divided explores the institution of slavery, the fierce sectionalism of free and slave economies in the rapidly expanding country, and the destructive power of the Civil War.
Fire-Web-of-Memory
Online Exhibition

The Great Chicago Fire & the Web of Memory

This project presents a history of the Great Chicago Fire and examines the many ways the Fire was remembered, featuring image galleries, texts, and interpretation.