Award to Support an Augmented Reality Experience on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

The Chicago History Museum was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to create an augmented reality experience that transports audiences to the World’s Columbian Exposition, the site of the very first Ferris Wheel.

The Museum’s award is part of $14.8 million in grants to support 253 humanities projects in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Museum’s grant is one of 20 nationwide in the Digital Projects for the Public category. NEH announced the awards in a press release issued on December 12.

“This award allows the Chicago History Museum to continue to share its historical images in a bold new way,” said John Russick, Vice President of Interpretation and Education at the Chicago History Museum. “Through virtual reality and augmented reality, we are able to explore the complexity and relevance of defining moments in Chicago’s history and offer users more immersive and visceral encounters with the past.”

The grant will advance the Museum’s Chicago 00 project, an ongoing series of mixed-reality experiences created by the Museum in collaboration with Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, filmmaker and associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Each Chicago 00 experience draws images from the Museum’s prints and photographs collection to connect users with critical events from Chicago’s past.

The Chicago 00 Project experiences include:

• Chicago 00: The 1968 DNC Protests, a virtual reality experience of Grant Park on August 28th, 1968 when protestors and police violently clashed;
• Chicago 00: 1933/34: A Century of Progress, a virtual reality experience of Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair;
• Chicago 00: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, an award winning virtual reality experience that brings photographs and documents from the Museum’s archive to the site of the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; and
• Chicago 00: The Eastland Disaster, an on-site augmented reality tour using over 70 historical photographs and newsreel films to tell the story of the single largest loss of life in Chicago history.

For more information on the Chicago 00 project visit chicago00.org. For more information about the Museum, visit chicagohistory.org.

ABOUT THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM

The Chicago History Museum is situated on ancestral homelands of the Potawatomi people, who cared for the land until forced out by non-Native settlers. Established in 1856, the Museum is now at 1601 N. Clark Street in Lincoln Park, its third location. As a major museum and research center for Chicago and U.S. history, the Chicago History Museum strives to be a destination for learning, inspiration and civic engagement. Through dynamic exhibitions, tours, publications, special events and programming, the Museum connects people to Chicago’s history and to each other. To share Chicago stories, the Museum collects and preserves millions of artifacts, documents, images and other items that are relevant to the city’s history. The Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chicago Park District on behalf of the people of Chicago.