Chicago Historical Society
Clark Street facade of the Chicago History Museum
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| Established | April 1856 |
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| Location | 1601 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614 |
| Type | History Museum |
| Visitors | 240,000 (2013) |
| Director | Gary T. Johnson |
| Public transit access |
Bus: 22, 36, 37, 72, 73, 151, 156 Chicago 'L': |
| Website | http://www.chicagohistory.org |
Bus: 22, 36, 37, 72, 73, 151, 156 Chicago 'L':
Chicago History Museum (formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society) was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. It is located in Lincoln Park at 1601 North Clark Street at the intersection of North Avenue in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood. It was renamed the Chicago History Museum in September 2006.
Much of the early collection of the Chicago Historical Society was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, but like the city, the museum rose from the ashes. Among its many documents which were lost in the fire was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, hand-written by Abraham Lincoln. After the fire, the Society began collecting new materials, which were stored in a building owned by J. Young Scammon, a prominent lawyer and member of the society. However, the building and new collection were again destroyed by fire in 1874. The Chicago Historical Society built a fireproof building on the site of its pre-1871 building at 632 North Dearborn Street. The replacement building opened in 1896 and, after housing the collection for thirty-six years, was used for several purposes and remained vacant for periods until being transformed into a nightclub in 1985. This impressively massive Richardsonian Romanesque building remained a nightclub for years until closing in 2014, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
In 1920, the Society purchased the large history collection of Charles F. Gunther with the intention of changing its focus from only a research institution into a public museum. Many of the items in Gunther's collection, in addition to Chicago, were related to Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. These include Lincoln's deathbed and several furniture pieces from the room where he died in Petersen House and clothing he and wife Mary Todd Lincoln allegedly wore the evening of his assassination.
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