Chicago ranks among the top three cities with the largest Ukrainian population in the United States. The first Ukrainian immigrants came to Chicago during a wave in the late nineteenth century, but three more waves of immigration followed throughout the twentieth century. Many Ukrainians settled in a western area of Chicago, which is now known…
Tag: Museum
Chinese American Museum of Chicago
The Chinese American Museum of Chicago just reopened its doors to the public on July 1, 2020, after being closed since March, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A video of the reopening is available on a Chinese website: http://video.sinovision.net/?id=57080&cid=124&fbclid=IwAR1JFmQDCF61-jNvMpIFVFGaAakkRuMxtn4yZFGysYTXGUQN_BPZhh8fWOI Many people from China began arriving to the United States during the California Gold Rush of…
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
The Smithsonian is a network of 20 museums run by the U.S. government. Perhaps the most popular of them is the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Completed in 1964, and originally called the National Museum of History and Technology, the museum, unsurprisingly, contains the largest collection of United States history in the…
DeKalb, Illinois and Barbed Wire
Most people may not know it, but Illinois has made an important contribution to barbed wire history. Although different people had been working on barbed wire during the mid-nineteenth century, it was not until 1874 that developments really skyrocketed in DeKalb, Illinois. According to my tour guide at the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead in DeKalb,…
The Henry Ford Museum
The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan (part of metropolitan Detroit) probably ranks among the best history museums in the United States. I have not been there since 2006, so it may have changed a bit since then. Born in 1863, Henry Ford became famous for pioneering the concept of an assembly line. Using this…
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
The state of Indiana annually hosts one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world: the Indianapolis 500 (more commonly known as the Indy 500). The race’s name derives from the fact that it is held in Indiana’s state capital of Indianapolis, and that the racers drive around the racetrack 200 times, equaling a…
Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
April 21, 2020 is this year’s date for Yom HaShoah, or Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israel commemorates the day by sounding a siren for 2 minutes throughout the country. During that time, the entire nation is required to stop what they are doing (including driving), until the siren stops. “Yom” means “day” in Hebrew, and…
Egyptian Museum in Cairo
Founded in 1902, the Egyptian Museum, or Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, is Egypt’s largest museum that houses ancient Egyptian antiquities. It also currently houses Egypt’s most famous archaeological objects. Located in Tahrir Square, a central square in downtown Cairo, it experienced some looting and damage during Egypt’s 2011 revolution. I had the opportunity to visit…
The British Museum
The British Museum in London is undoubtedly ranked as one the best museums in the world, containing approximately 8 million artifacts. It was founded in 1753 as the first free, national museum. Its enormous collection contains items from every continent in the world except for Antarctica. This is largely in part to the fact that…
Art Institute of Chicago
Along with the Science and Industry Museum and the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago is probably among Chicago’s top 3 museums. Additionally, it probably ranks among the best art museums in the United States. Fortunately, for Illinois residents, the Museum is participating in Illinois’ free museum days. That means that…
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