Chicago’s less-traveled museums honor cultures ideas
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By Zach Dunkin | Sunday, February 11, 2007 |
(NATIONAL VIETNAM VETERANS ART MUSEUM) The 58,236 metal dog tags hanging from the ceiling of the two-story atrium of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago represent the American men and women who died in the Vietnam War.
While Chicago’s Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry enjoy international stature, the city offers an abundance of lesser-known museums that reflect the city’s diversity and creativity. There are entire museums dedicated to holograms, the peace movement, surgical science and Vietnam War art.
There is a museum for nearly every culture that staked a claim in the “melting pot of America” —from the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture to the Mexican Fine Arts Center to the Ukrainian National Museum.
On a three-day weekend in the Windy City, we visited seven museums and only scratched the surface of the more than 50 in the metro area. Here is a sampling of what we discovered:
DuSable Museum of African American History
What’s inside: Visitors enter through Founders Hall, where they’ll find wonderful tile mosaics of museum’s founders, plus the bust of the museum’s namesake, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable. DuSable, a black settler friendly to the Indians, French and English of Eschikagow (Indian for “a place of smelly waters“), was the first non-American Indian settler in Chicago in 1784. “Africa Speaks,” with its artifact-filled display of statues, masks and iron shackles and ankle chains used by slavers, is the museum’s permanent exhibit and focuses on the cultural creativity of Africa. Downstairs is the powerful “A Right Given But Denied: Exploring the Civil Rights Movement” and the inspiring “From Dreams to Determination — The Legacy of Doctors Percy and Anna Julian.”
Fascinating find: A 19th-century harp made of wood, fiber, ivory, snakeskin and metal used by the Mangbetu people living north of the Congo. Historians of the kingdom used harps, along with roving singers to glorify the king and his dynasty.
Where: 740 E. 56th Place.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission: $3 adults, $2 students and seniors, $1 ages 6-13. Free admission to all on Sunday.
Information: www.dusablemuseum.org.
Chinese-American Museum of Chicago
What’s inside: The small museum opened in May 2005 and has since staged five exhibits in addition to its permanent collection. Through Sept. 30, visitors can check out “Chinatown History and Archaeology: Faces of Change,” the results of an archeological dig in a vacant lot right next door to the museum.
Fascinating find: A copy of the menu at Chicago’s Chinese Village Cafe from the 1893 World’s Fair, listing American dishes such as pork and beans (25 cents), ham sandwiches (10 cents) and a bowl of oatmeal and milk (20 cents) among Chinese teas, rice and Li Che nuts. Fair organizers felt that an all-Chinese menu might be too much for Midwestern fairgoers.
Where: 238 W. 23rd St., in Chinatown.
Hours: 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission: Suggested donation of $2 adults and $1 seniors and students.
Information: www.ccamuseum.org
The Museum of Holography
What’s inside: Ring the doorbell and you’ll get buzzed into a multi colored world of holographic, 3-D art. It may take you some time to figure out the best technique to view the holograms, but in most cases you’ll need to stay farther away from them than you think. Currently, the 30-year-old museum features “Transitional States,” an exhibit demonstrating movement in holographic form. In a small, Plexiglas cylinder, NBA legend Michael Jordan moves a basketball in a full rotation around his body. Also, the eyes of the late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko seem to follow you as you circle his hologram, and he breaks into a smile just before rotating out of sight. Many of the smaller holograms hang on the walls and include subjects ranging from a prehistoric man to former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka to a pointed finger that seemingly extends four inches from its flat surface.
Fascinating find: A hologram of what appears to be a pair of reading glasses protruding from the flat surface. Look into them and you’ll see a magnified version of the print. Move back and to the side and you see regular-sized print. How do they do that?
Where: 1134 W. Washington Blvd.
Hours: 12:30-5 p.m., Wednes-day through Sunday.
Admission: $5.
Information: www.holographiccenter.com.
Chicago History Museum
What’s inside: Formerly the Chicago Historical Society, 75 percent of the building has been remodeled into a museum that entices you to stay all day. Entertaining bilingual (English and Spanish) dioramas and exhibits of modern and historical artifacts illustrate the history and culture of Chicago. The Museum’s collection of more than 22 million artifacts is spread over eight main collection areas on two floors. All of the city’s historical events and culture are covered, including the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, its skyscrapers, its musical history in blues and jazz, the 1993 World’s Fair and the city’s sports franchises.
Fascinating find: Abraham Lincoln did not sleep here, but he did die in the bed on display. Lincoln, who spent eight years in the Illinois Legislature and is buried in Springfield, died in a boarding house across the street from Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The 6-foot-4 president was too tall for the bed, so he was laid diagonally across it. The bed in which he died, plus a lock of his hair and the towel used to care for his head wound, are part of the “Treasures” exhibit.
Our suggested minimum visit: 5 hours. (You can break for lunch at the adjoining History Cafe).
Where: 1601 N. Clark St.
Hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday with extended hours to 8 p.m. Thursday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission: $12 adults, $10 ages 13-22 and 65 and older, free ages 12 and younger
Information: www.chicagohs.org.
National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
What’s inside: Disturbing, haunting and powerful, the mission of more than 1,500 paintings, photos, poetry and sculpture is to inspire a “greater understanding of the real impact of war with a focus on Vietnam.” Extending beyond the Vietnam War, a second-floor gallery focuses on photographs and paintings representing the war in Iraq in the “Shifting Memories” display.
Fascinating find: Hanging from the ceiling of the two-story high atrium is “Above and Beyond,” a collection 58,236 metal dog tags, representing each of the servicemen and women who died in the Vietnam War. Spaced one inch apart, they shift and chime with changes in air currents within the building.
Where: 1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.
Admission: $10 adults, $7 students.
Information: www.nvvam.org.
The Peace Museum
What’s inside: There are posters, buttons, original paintings, sculptures and donated “celebrity” items such as a guitar, letter and lithograph belonging to the late John Lennon and original lyric sheet music and poetry by Bono of U2. Five exhibits are currently up, including Danish artist Claus Miller’s “Signs for Peace,” which transforms human thumbprints of 51 peace activists — including Lennon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein and Rosa Parks — into “fingerprint-portraits.” The word “peace” is written in 44 different languages across the Lennon fingerprint.
A vast “Images Against War” exhibit in a mirror-lined showroom includes war and violence-related photos from more than 660 photographers worldwide that evoke emotions ranging from horror to humor to hope.
Fascinating find: An accordion artwork showing both Saddam Hussein and President Bush as devils and angels, depending on how the illustration is folded.
Where: 100 N. Central Park Ave.
Hours: 1-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Admission: $5 suggested donation.
Information: www.peacemuseum.org.
If you go: For a list of more than 50 museums and institutions in the Chicago metro area, log on to collaboratory. www.nunet.net/museums/pages.cfm.
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