Collections at CHM

Learn about the scope of our work and all of the artifacts and resources the Museum has to offer!

The Museum’s collection of more than 23 million objects, images, and documents records the evolution of Chicago. The collection reflects our commitment to share Chicago stories by serving as a hub of scholarship and learning, inspiration, and civic engagement.

How to Access the Collections

CHM welcomes scholars, students, genealogists, filmmakers, journalists, and the general public to our Abakanowicz Research Center to access the Research Collection, which consists of primarily 2-D materials, such as prints and photographs, archives and manuscripts, architectural drawings and records, books, and other published materials.

The Museum Collection, which consists of primarily 3-D materials such as, architectural fragments and models, costumes, textiles, paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and other artifacts and works of art, is also available to researchers on a more limited basis due to specialized storage and handling requirements.

Online Research Resources

  • ARCHIE Online Catalog: For information on the Museum’s holdings that are served through the Abakanowicz Research Center, such as manuscripts, books and periodicals, and photographic materials. Please note that while this resource is extensive, it is not exhaustive. For assistance researching materials that are not yet available in the online catalog, we recommend contacting the Abakanowicz Research Center for additional guidance.
  • CHM Images: The Museum’s most comprehensive visual resource. Search and browse more than 330,000 images from CHM’s collection, including the Chicago Sun-Times collection. Highlights include:
  • Collections Online Portal (CARLI): Access images and information on some of the Museum’s most significant and frequently requested collection materialsplus a growing number of sound recordings. Note that the vast majority of the collection is not yet online, and new resources are added to the portal on an ongoing basis.
  • Costume and Textiles Collection Images: Highlights from the Museum’s collection of more than 50,000 costume and textile artifacts, one of the nation’s premier clothing and fashion collections particularly strong in materials from the late 19th century to the present.
  • LibGuides: A guide to the Abakanowicz Research Center at the Chicago History Museum, including hours, access, policies, collection guides, and subject guides to help you get started on your research.

More Online Resources

Chicago History Magazine

  • Chicago History magazine: The magazine of the Chicago History Museum publishes articles on various aspects of the history of Chicago: cultural, political, economic, social, architectural, and other topics. Find articles from 1970 to the present.

CHM Blog

  • CHM Blog: Short-form articles on topics that range from behind-the-scenes museum work and unusual items in our collection to lesser known aspects of Chicago’s history and cultures.

Digital Chicago

  • Digital Chicago: A collection of more than 20 digital projects about forgotten or at-risk aspects of Chicago’s history and culture, originally developed at Lake Forest College as part of a four-year initiative to involve students and faculty in research into Chicago’s history through innovative digital projects and urban archeological digs.

Encyclopedia of Chicago online

  • Encyclopedia of Chicago online: A comprehensive scholarly collection of entries, essays, maps, images, and charts that covers all aspects of the history of metropolitan Chicago, built on the printed volume published in 2004.

Haymarket Affair Digital Collection

  • The Haymarket Affair Digital Collection: CHM’s collection of primary source materials relating to the Haymarket Affair, a controversial moment in Chicago’s past and a pivotal event in the early history of the American labor movement.

Studs Terkel Center for Oral History

  • Studs Terkel Center for Oral History: Founded in 2005, the Chicago History Museum’s Studs Terkel Center for Oral History collaborates with community partners to promote oral history as a tool of social justice.

Donating to the Collection

Due to the volume of offers the Chicago History Museum receives, we cannot accept donated objects, images, or documents unless you first submit a completed donation form for review. Learn more about donating to the CHM Collection here.

What's in the Collection

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I donate something to the collection?

Due to the high volume of donation offers the Museum receives, we are unable to accept unsolicited objects, images, or documents unless you first submit a completed Online Collection Donation Form describing the material you wish to donate.

Please do not send the original materials you wish to donate to the Museum until you have been contacted by Museum staff.

Learn more about donating to the collection here.

What is the Abakanowicz Research Center?

The Chicago History Museum’s Abakanowicz Research Center is one of the premier research facilities in Chicago, and it carries on the tradition of serving the public the Chicago Historical Society established with its founding in 1856. The Gilpin Library, which opened as part of the Society’s new building designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb in 1896 at Dearborn and Ontario Streets, provided the public with an up-to-date research facility. The Society moved to its current location in Lincoln Park in 1932 into a building designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White featuring a museum and a library. In the early 2000s, the multiple reading rooms dedicated to specific collections were consolidated into the CHM Research Center.

In 2021, it was renamed and dedicated as the Abakanowicz Research Center after sculptor and artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. The naming acknowledges her commitment to truth and diversity in history and her deep association with the city of Chicago, where she is best known for her public work, Agora (2006), in Grant Park. The Archie Motley Reading Room of the Abakanowicz Research Center is named in honor of Archibald Motley, who was a staff member from 1955 to 2002 and served legions of researchers as the Museum’s archivist (1974–98).

Visitors to the Abakanowicz Research Center include authors; educators; independent scholars; photo researchers; members of the press; elementary and secondary school students (especially Chicago Metro History Day students); undergraduate and graduate students, including PhD candidates; architects; building developers; and family and house historians.

Please review the Abakanowicz Research Center Information to learn more about the its hours, admission fees, policies, and services before planning your research visit. Note that access to certain materials may require advance notice.

What if I am unable to visit the Abakanowicz Research Center in person?

If you are unable to visit us in person, there are a number of services available:

What kinds of things does the Museum collect?

The Museum’s collecting scope encompasses the following areas:

  • Living in the Metropolitan Area: Demographic change, family life, communities, neighborhoods, religious life, gender, sports, recreation, class, leisure, crime, race, ethnicity, and education. We are currently collecting materials that document the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Working in the Metropolitan Area: The changing economic base of the city, business, manufacturing, labor, transportation, and scientific and technological development
  • Governing the Metropolitan Area: Electoral politics, citizen action movements, community organizing, and urban planning
  • The Built Environment: Architecture in its broadest social and economic context, going beyond great buildings and architects
  • Individuals and Ideas: Art, literature, music, and philosophy produced by individuals in the metropolitan area, particularly as reflections on and interpretations of this area

For more information about the Chicago History Museum’s collection stewardship and practices, please review its Collections Policy.

Are there any items the Chicago History Museum doesn’t collect?

Yes, CHM no longer collects some historical objects, images, and documents.

Home Movies and Amateur Films
The Museum does not accept donations of home movies and amateur films for the collection. Please consider donating your home movies and amateur films to the Chicago Film Archives or the South Side Home Movie Project.

Chicago’s World’s Fairs Publications and Souvenirs
The Museum does not accept donations of publications or souvenirs from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition for the collection.

Costumes
The Museum does not accept donations of wedding gowns for the collection.

Photographs
The Museum does not accept donations of unidentified photographs for the collection.

World War II Materials
The Museum does not accept donation of material related to Chicagoans’ or other Americans’ service experiences in World War II for the collection. The only exceptions are materials related to servicemen and women while training or stationed in Chicago and material that documents the home front experience in Chicago during World War II. Consider donating your World War II material to the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

What is the Museum’s Collections Management Policy?

The full Collections Management Policy can be found here.

How do I see something from the Museum Collections?

In-person access to the Architecture (models and fragments), Costume and Textiles, Decorative and Industrial Arts, and Paintings and Sculpture holdings is available by appointment only.

Due to the extensive resources required to handle and retrieve these historical materials, research appointments are available only to researchers who are able to demonstrate that in-person access is required to support substantive research and that the results of that research will be disseminated widely. Please note that not all objects will be available for researcher access due to condition, location, staff availability, and/or other factors. Scheduling an appointment to view available material may require several additional weeks.

To request an in-person research appointment, please submit the Object Research Inquiry Form.

How do I donate something to the collection?

Due to the high volume of donation offers the Museum receives, we are unable to accept unsolicited objects, images, or documents unless you first submit a completed Online Collection Donation Form describing the material you wish to donate.

Please do not send the original materials you wish to donate to the Museum until you have been contacted by Museum staff.

Learn more about donating to the collection here.

What is the Abakanowicz Research Center?

The Chicago History Museum’s Abakanowicz Research Center is one of the premier research facilities in Chicago, and it carries on the tradition of serving the public the Chicago Historical Society established with its founding in 1856. The Gilpin Library, which opened as part of the Society’s new building designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb in 1896 at Dearborn and Ontario Streets, provided the public with an up-to-date research facility. The Society moved to its current location in Lincoln Park in 1932 into a building designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White featuring a museum and a library. In the early 2000s, the multiple reading rooms dedicated to specific collections were consolidated into the CHM Research Center.

In 2021, it was renamed and dedicated as the Abakanowicz Research Center after sculptor and artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. The naming acknowledges her commitment to truth and diversity in history and her deep association with the city of Chicago, where she is best known for her public work, Agora (2006), in Grant Park. The Archie Motley Reading Room of the Abakanowicz Research Center is named in honor of Archibald Motley, who was a staff member from 1955 to 2002 and served legions of researchers as the Museum’s archivist (1974–98).

Visitors to the Abakanowicz Research Center include authors; educators; independent scholars; photo researchers; members of the press; elementary and secondary school students (especially Chicago Metro History Day students); undergraduate and graduate students, including PhD candidates; architects; building developers; and family and house historians.

Please review the Abakanowicz Research Center Information to learn more about the its hours, admission fees, policies, and services before planning your research visit. Note that access to certain materials may require advance notice.

What if I am unable to visit the Abakanowicz Research Center in person?

If you are unable to visit us in person, there are a number of services available:

What kinds of things does the Museum collect?

The Museum’s collecting scope encompasses the following areas:

  • Living in the Metropolitan Area: Demographic change, family life, communities, neighborhoods, religious life, gender, sports, recreation, class, leisure, crime, race, ethnicity, and education. We are currently collecting materials that document the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Working in the Metropolitan Area: The changing economic base of the city, business, manufacturing, labor, transportation, and scientific and technological development
  • Governing the Metropolitan Area: Electoral politics, citizen action movements, community organizing, and urban planning
  • The Built Environment: Architecture in its broadest social and economic context, going beyond great buildings and architects
  • Individuals and Ideas: Art, literature, music, and philosophy produced by individuals in the metropolitan area, particularly as reflections on and interpretations of this area

For more information about the Chicago History Museum’s collection stewardship and practices, please review its Collections Policy.

Are there any items the Chicago History Museum doesn’t collect?

Yes, CHM no longer collects some historical objects, images, and documents.

Home Movies and Amateur Films
The Museum does not accept donations of home movies and amateur films for the collection. Please consider donating your home movies and amateur films to the Chicago Film Archives or the South Side Home Movie Project.

Chicago’s World’s Fairs Publications and Souvenirs
The Museum does not accept donations of publications or souvenirs from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition for the collection.

Costumes
The Museum does not accept donations of wedding gowns for the collection.

Photographs
The Museum does not accept donations of unidentified photographs for the collection.

World War II Materials
The Museum does not accept donation of material related to Chicagoans’ or other Americans’ service experiences in World War II for the collection. The only exceptions are materials related to servicemen and women while training or stationed in Chicago and material that documents the home front experience in Chicago during World War II. Consider donating your World War II material to the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

What is the Museum’s Collections Management Policy?

The full Collections Management Policy can be found here.

How do I see something from the Museum Collections?

In-person access to the Architecture (models and fragments), Costume and Textiles, Decorative and Industrial Arts, and Paintings and Sculpture holdings is available by appointment only.

Due to the extensive resources required to handle and retrieve these historical materials, research appointments are available only to researchers who are able to demonstrate that in-person access is required to support substantive research and that the results of that research will be disseminated widely. Please note that not all objects will be available for researcher access due to condition, location, staff availability, and/or other factors. Scheduling an appointment to view available material may require several additional weeks.

To request an in-person research appointment, please submit the Object Research Inquiry Form.

Translate »