Chicago Museums & Historic Sites

Enjoy World-Renown Museums- Chicago Field Museum, Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and more . . .

Chicago's Museum Campus was created after a reconfiguration of Lake Shore Drive in 1998 -- previously, lanes ran through the middle of the area, dividing it up and creating some tricky navigation from the parking lots to the museums. Now the lanes have been moved to the west, and the major attractions of the Museum Campus -- the Shedd Aquarium (14.7 mi), Field Museum (14.8 mi), Adler Planetarium (15.2 mi), and Soldier Field (14.9 mi) -- are all tied together by green space.

The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere and offers over 800 fascinating interactive exhibits including the U-505 submarine, a working coal mine, a Boeing 727 airplane, and much, much more.

Impressive art museums are plentiful in Chicago, including the Art Institute of Chicago (14.0 mi), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (14.0 mi). Other museums include a nature museum, a photography museum, and many more. See our list below for information on these and many other Chicago museums.

Chicago museums listed by distance from the the hotel:

Cernan Earth and Space Center   •   4.6 mi

2000 Fifth Avenue, River Grove, IL 60171, 708 456-0300
Explore the wonders of the universe and the latest discoveries in astronomy, space exploration and earth science at The Cernan Earth and Space Center , located at Triton College in Chicago's western suburb of River Grove. This unique space-age facility combines education and entertainment for people of all ages. The Cernan Center houses a 100-seat dome theater that features star-filled planetarium shows, wraparound films, children's shows, and laser light shows, along with a Space Hall and Star Store gift shop. In addition to the regular programs, the Cernan Center also has a series of Monthly Skywatch programs that keep people abreast of the rapid changes in astronomy and space science while providing an opportunity to observe the moon and planets through telescopes set up on the lawn outside the building. Periodically, the Cernan Center also hosts special events, lectures and workshops that complement programs presented in the dome theater.

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio • 6.7 mi

951 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • (708) 848-1976
More than one hundred years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright sparked an architectural revolution with the opening of his Oak Park studio. Wright added a studio to his personal Oak Park residence in 1898 and thereafter this complex served as Wright's architectural laboratory until 1909. The Home and Studio is one of two museum sites maintained by The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. The restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio was an intensive, meticulous effort that spanned 13 years and took $3 million to complete. Now open to the public as an historic house museum, the building has been restored to its 1909 appearance, the last year Wright lived and worked on the property. Through its restoration and preservation efforts and many programs, the not-for-profit Preservation Trust presents Wright's structures, as well as his architectural and artistic principles, to a worldwide audience.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum • 12.0 mi

2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago IL 60614 • (773) 755-5100
Experience a gateway to the natural world. Get your hands wet as you learn about Chicago's waterways and the organisms that reside within them. Touch live animals found in Illinois wetlands. Let your imagination run wild as you walk among Wilderness Walk, and our restored native prairie. Escape to a Haven fluttering with exotic butterflies and birds. The possibilities for fun and learning are endless at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Union Station • 13.0 mi

222 S. Canal Street, Chicago, IL 60606
Union Station is an historical landmark in Chicago, the last remaining of Chicago's great turn-of-the-century train depots. Back in the 1940's, over 300 trains arrived or departed daily and 100,000 passengers passed through the terminal. Today, about 50,000 commuters pass through Union Station each day. While most of the daily commuters go directly to the trains and never pass through the Great Hall, which is that portion of the station that dates back to 1925. You'll want to visit that section and take in the regal stature of this historical structure with its marble floors and walls, Corinthian columns, and bronze torches.
If you need a bite to eat while visiting Union Station, you'll find a variety of options, including a cafeteria style deli with bar, a food court, Corner Bakery for sandwiches and baked goods, Gold Coast Dogs, and Connie's Pizza. Union Station also has a convenience shops for magazines, newspapers and Chicago souvenirs.

Chicago History Museum • 13.0 mi

1601 N. Clark Street (at North Avenue), Chicago, IL 60614 • (312) 642-4600
The Chicago History Museum, formerly the Chicago Historical Society, is a must-see for all Chicago natives and visitors. The city's oldest cultural institution, the Museum is all new after completing a nine month renovation in September 2006.
The Museum's permanent exhibition, Chicago: Crossroads of America, explores the city's economy, crises, innovation, neighborhoods, and entertainment. The Museum also installed its first Children's Gallery, where kids can explore Chicago's history using their five senses. Showcasing items from a 22 million-piece collection, the Museum is also home to a world-renowned costume collection, as well as artifacts from the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

The Hancock Observatory • 13.0 mi

875 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 • (888) 875-VIEW
The Hancock Observatory is located on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building 1,000 feet above the Magnificent Mile. It is the city's only open-air skywalk. Here you'll see a 360-degree incredible view of Chicago, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and other parts of Illinois. Features include Soundscope talking telescopes with sound effects and narration in several different languages, and the History Wall, with more than 100 photos on display featuring Chicago's history. Skytours provides an overview of the city with 16 stops of one to three minutes each, available in English, Spanish and German. Windows on Chicago is user-friendly technology that lets you "tour" more than 80 favorite Chicago attractions. The Observatory also provides for some unique photo opportunities. A great dining option is The Cheesecake Factory, located at the lower level of the Hancock Building.

Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows • 14.0 mi

600 E. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 • 312-595-PIER
The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows is a permanent display of 150 stained glass windows housed in an 800-ft.-long series of galleries along the lower level terraces of Festival Hall at Navy Pier. Open since February 2000, it is the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to stained glass windows. It showcases both secular and religious windows and is divided by artistic theme into four categories: Victorian, Prairie, Modern and Contemporary. All of the windows were designed by prominent local, national and European studios and most were originally installed in Chicago area residential, commercial and religious buildings.

Chicago Children's Museum • 14.0 mi

700 E. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 • (312) 527-1000
The Chicago Children's Museum was founded in 1982 by a coalition led by The Junior League of Chicago in response to program cutbacks in the Chicago Public Schools. The museum opened in two hallways of the Chicago Public Library. In response to capacity crowds on-site, the Museum developed trunk shows and exhibits which traveled to schools, branch libraries, and neighborhood centers. The Museum was relocated a couple times, then in 1995 it moved to its current home on Navy Pier.
Three floors of hands-on exhibits, performances, and workshops offer hours of learning adventures for the family. There are a variety of activities for children. They can scale a towering schooner, splash into WaterWays & even dig for dinosaur bones! There is a Museum Store where you'll find unique educational toys, gadgets, and Museum logo merchandise, and you can even host a birthday party at the Museum.

Museum of Contemporary Art • 14.0 mi

220 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 • (312) 280-2660
The Museum of Contemporary Art offers exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art created since 1945. One of the nation's largest facilities devoted to the art of our time, it includes exhibits of painting, sculpture, photography, video, film and performance. The Museum is located in a new building near the historic Water Tower in the heart of downtown Chicago, and boasts a gift store, bookstore, a 300-seat theater, and a terraced sculpture garden with a great view of Lake Michigan. Also on site is a restaurant created by Wolfgang Puck called Puck's at the MCA. Puck's offers exciting dining in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile. It offers a full-service restaurant and an express counter with an eclectic menu that draws on Mediterranean and Asian influences and they have a Sunday brunch.

Harold Washington Library Center • 14.0 mi

400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL 60605 • (312) 747-4300
The Harold Washington Library is a huge library on State Street and Congress Parkway in Chicago. When it opened in 1991, it was listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the largest public library building in the world. The building design is neo-classical, incorporating elements of ancient Greek and Roman structures. The nine-story library houses many departments including the Popular Library on the first floor, the Thomas Hughes Children's Library on the second floor, the Business, Science and Technology, Talking Book Center, Social Science & History, Literature & Language, Visual and Performing Arts Departments and many more. The Library also features a 385-seat auditorium, and exhibit hall, a video theater and meeting rooms within its lower level, in addition to works of art located throughout the library.

The Field Museum • 15.0 mi

1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496 • (312) 922-9410
The Field Museum is located at Chicago's Museum Campus. It was founded to house the biological and anthropological collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. These objects form the core of the Museum's collections which have grown through world-wide expeditions, exchange, purchase, and gifts to more than twenty million specimens. The collections form the foundation of the Museum's exhibition, research and education programs, which are further informed by a world-class natural history library of more than 250,000 volumes. Permanent exhibits include topics such as bird habitats, African culture, animal biology, sea mammals, gems, fossils, Eskimos, Native American cultures, and much, much more. Check the Museum's website for current temporary exhibits, and don't miss everyone's favorite, Sue, the world's largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex.

Shedd Aquarium • 15.0 mi

1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 • (312) 939-2438
The Shedd Aquarium, located on Chicago's Museum Campus, is the world's largest indoor aquarium with more than 8,000 aquatic animals representing more than 700 species from all parts of the world. The Caribbean Reef, teaming with bright, colorful new corals and more than 60 species of animal, includes bonnet head sharks, southern stingrays, angelfish and a hawksbill sea turtle. Divers hand-feed sharks, sea turtles and eels at scheduled times during the day. The Marine Mammal Presentation, presented several times each day, features animal-care staff interacting with the dolphins and whales as they dive, spyhop and walk on their tails.

Shedd also offers Habitat Chats for visitors to learn about the aquatic world and its inhabitants in an informal setting. Learn about what they eat, how Shedd Aquarium cares for them and more about their natural habitats. Aquarium and Oceanarium chats are scheduled in a variety of habitats, locations are posted daily throughout the Aquarium. Another feature, Animal Encounters, gives you a chance to look at, learn about and touch such critters as a Chilean rose tarantula, leopard gecko, African bullfrog, red-tailed boa, or king snake.

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum • 15.0 mi

1801 S. Indiana Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616 • (312) 326-0270
The National Vietnam Veteran's Art Museum began in the late 1970's and is dedicated to collecting, preserving and displaying artwork on the subject of the Vietnam War created exclusively by Vietnam Veterans. They have over 1,000 works of art done by over 130 artists, mostly Americans, but also Australian, Cambodian, Thai, South Vietnamese and even the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. The artists' personal experiences are reflected in their work, which includes paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, poetry, prose, music and artifacts, and the artists come from a broad range of war experience, including infantry, naval, air crew, nurses, doctors, and prisoners of war.

Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum • 15.0 mi

1300 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 • (312) 922-STAR
The Adler Planetarium opened in 1930 as the first planetarium in the western hemisphere, and is the only museum in the world with two full-size planetarium theaters. Since 1930, the wonder of the stars has been visible in the historic Sky Theater. Powered by brand new Digistar 3™ simulator technology, the StarRider Theater is a completely digital, virtual outer space environment. The famous Zeiss Planetarium projector is capable of accurately reproducing the movement of every aspect of the night sky.
Located on Lake Shore Drive at Chicago's Museum Campus, the Adler is home to more than 35,000 square feet of exhibits, including scale models of the Solar System, ancient astronomical instruments and interactive adventures, and houses one of the finest collections of historical astronomical instruments and rare books in the world.

Chicago Cultural Center • 14.0 mi

78 E. Washington Street, Chicago 60602 • (312) 744-6630
The Chicago Cultural Center is a Chicago Landmark building that was the nation's first free municipal cultural centers and is considered one of the most comprehensive arts showcases in the United States. It is one of the city's most popular attractions, featuring more than 1,000 programs and exhibitions covering a wide range of the performing, visual and literary arts. The Cultural Center also houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders.

The David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art • 19.0 mi

5550 S. Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 • (773) 702-0200
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art houses a permanent collection of over 7,000 objects, spanning five centuries of both Western and Eastern civilizations. It is one of the Midwest's most dynamic and innovative educational institutions in the visual arts due to the scope of its permanent collections, groundbreaking special exhibitions, a focus on research and teaching by University of Chicago scholars, and distinguished outreach and educational programs geared to both adults and school age children.
Visitors can view ancient Greek vases and Chinese bronzes, medieval sculpture and Old Master paintings; from Frank Lloyd Wright furniture and Tiffany glass to modern sculpture by Degas, Matisse, and Rodin; and 20th century paintings and sculpture by Mark Rothko, Arthur Dove, Diego Rivera, Henry Moore, and Richard Hunt.

Museum of Science and Industry • 19.0 mi

57th Street & Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60637 • (773) 684-1414
The Museum of Science and Industry is one of the most beloved and visited museums in the world and is the oldest science museum of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It was inspired by Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald during a 1911 visit with his son to the Deutches Museum in Munich. Rosenwald returned to Chicago determined to create the museum as a vehicle for public science education, and with the help of other Midwest business leaders, he restored and converted the last remaining major structure from the 1893 World's Fair, the Palace of Fine Arts, into a new type of American museum. In 1933, the Museum of Science and Industry opened to the public and featured interactive exhibits instead of only visual exhibits.
The Museum of Science and Industry currently features over 800 exhibits and over 2,000 interactive units and attracts approximately 2 million visitors per year. Some of the exhibits include a WWII captured German submarine, a 3,000-square-foot model railroad, baby-chick hatchery, a nearly 20-foot walk-through human heart model, and the Apollo 8 Spacecraft. In addition to the thousands of exhibits, there are also several shops and places to eat during your visit to the Museum of Science and Industry.