Museum Blog

To commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, CHM editor Heidi Samuelson compiled some highlights from the Museum’s collection. Sixty years ago, the third Pan American Games were held in Chicago from August 27 to September 7. This was the first time they were held both in the United States More

This Saturday marks one hundred years since the Chicago Race Riot, which began on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. In this photo essay, CHM assistant curator Julius L. Jones recounts the events of that tumultuous week, as well as the legacy of activism that came from it. All images are from the More

CHM digital content manager Julius L. Jones discusses the circumstances in 1968 that set the stage for a momentous event as well as the latest virtual reality experience from the Chicago ØØ Project. By the time Chicago hosted the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the city was the center of the American political world. Since 1904, More

DePaul University students Joseph Flynn, Jay Kietzman, Jessica Licklider, and Lily Zenger delve into the issues surrounding the Civil War monuments in the Chicago area. They were students of Peter T. Alter, the Museum’s historian and director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, as part of DePaul University’s public history program. Former CHM More

For the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, CHM assistant editor Esther D. Wang recaps the events leading up to that moment, highlighting the youngest and only female member of the team. On December 2, 1942, a team of scientists at the University of Chicago silently sipped Chianti from paper cups More