During the month of February, one of Chicago’s best museums, the Field Museum of Natural History, is free to Illinois residents. It ranks among the best natural history museums in the United States, along with New York’s American Museum of Natural History and Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. After the World’s Columbian Exposition,…
Tag: Museum
Sheldon Peck Homestead and the Underground Railroad
In United States history, a person became a member of the “Underground Railroad” if he or she assisted slaves from the Southern states to escape to free areas where slavery was illegal (often the Northern states or Canada). Nobody had to formally join an organization called the Underground Railroad to become a member. The phrase…
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is one of the only surviving buildings from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, which was in Jackson Park, in the South Side of Chicago. Like most of the other buildings at the World’s Fair, it was built in the Beaux…
Chicago World Fairs and Chicago Museum Free Days
The coldest months of the year in Chicago, January and February, are also when Chicago’s museums have the lowest number of visitors. Because of this, Chicago’s most famous museums usually have a large number of free admission days for Illinois residents. Here is the list of free days offered at Chicago museums in 2020: https://www.chicagoparent.com/learn/museums/free-museum-days-chicago/…
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Smithsonian is a network of 20 museums (as of January, 2020), that are run by the U.S. government. The newest museum on the list opened in 2016, and is the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Like most of the Smithsonian museums, it is located in the Nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Since…
Musical Instrument Museum
In 2010, Phoenix, Arizona opened up a museum dedicated solely to musical instruments called the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM). The MIM strives to display instruments from every country and territory in the world, so, with about 7,000 instruments on display, there over 200 countries/territories currently represented. The museum is categorized by geographic regions, meaning that…
Samaritan Museum
Many people know about Samaritans from the New Testament parable of the “Good Samaritan,” which Jesus told in Luke 10:25-37. According to that parable, Samaritans and Jews in the 1st Century A.D. hated each other. In case you’re wondering if Samaritans still exist, I can assure you that they do, because I had the privilege…
Jamestown
Because it was recently Thanksgiving, I want to write about Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the United States. Although not directly part of the Thanksgiving story, the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 paved the way for the English settlers, known as the Pilgrims, to established Plymouth Colony in 1620. (Thanksgiving originated from the…
National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial
Unfortunately, many genocides occurred during the twentieth century. One of them was the Cambodian Genocide, which took place between 1975 and 1979. Approximately, 2 million people died. In the United States, Chicago is the only place that currently has a memorial to this Genocide (although Long Beach, California is currently working on one). This is…
International Museum of Surgical Science
“At Home in Chicago” is a consortium of over 20 mansions in the Chicago area that are open to the public. One of these mansions was built for a wealthy Chicago family in 1917, and faces Lake Shore Drive. Since 1954, this mansion has housed the International Museum of Surgical Science, which is owned by…
Bet Arkeh 