Chicago History Museum
The Chicago History Museum cares for, showcases, and interprets millions of authentic pieces of Chicago and U.S. history. Our ability to illuminate the past is a reminder of what really happened once upon a time, sheds light on the present, and compellingly informs the future. We invite you to engage with our stories and make history yourself.www.chicagohistory.org
43
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Search complete. 43 mentions across 18 episodes found for "Chicago History Museum".
Oct 8, 2026
Lisa LabuzHOST
Now this fall, the Chicago History Museum will display some rare presidential artifacts, and among them is an item from Mary Todd Lincoln's wardrobe that really brings the past to life.
Lisa LabuzHOST
WBEZ's Courtney Kippers brings it to you.
Michael HallGUEST
Hi, good morning.
Courtney KippersCORRESPONDENT
I recently swung by the Chicago History Museum to meet with Michael Hall, who I find in a dimly lit workspace filled with-
Michael HallGUEST
Several different mannequins, lots of scatterings of underpinnings, head forms, uh, dresses-
Courtney KippersCORRESPONDENT
Hall is a mount maker, meaning it's his job to ready mannequins across the museum, including for the upcoming exhibit, Threads of a Nation, featuring clothing associated with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, George and Martha Washington, and John Adams.
Michael HallGUEST
He was a big candy maker here, and he was kind of an armchair, um, historian, and he had his own museum here.
Michael HallGUEST
[upbeat music]
William PackNARRATOR
After its destruction, the manager of the theater put out a sign that said, Standing room only.
William PackNARRATOR
Gone was the entire collection of the Chicago Historical Society, including an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's walking stick.
William PackNARRATOR
Gone most theaters, music halls, hotels, most of these buildings consumed within minutes.
William PackNARRATOR
Marshall Field carted off about $600,000 worth of merchandise, while another $2.5 million worth burned.
35 MINS LATER
Bill PeckGUEST
But when the water pumping station stops pumping, in trying to save everything in his house, he saved nothing.
Bill PeckGUEST
And so when you think about those 10 thick volumes of letters from those major people in our history, and you wonder what history's been lost there, it breaks my heart every time I think about it.
Bill PeckGUEST
And just like the Chicago Historical Society, the entire place went down, and they had one of the, uh, original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation-
speaker_21HOST
Oh my God
Adam RubinGUEST
Oh, yeah.
Joni FollettoCORRESPONDENT
Yes, that happens October, uh, 16th to, through the 23rd and here are some of the venues, including the Music Box Theatre, amazing architectural gem in our city, as well as the AMC New City 14, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Logan Center of the Arts at the University of Chicago.
Joni FollettoCORRESPONDENT
Um, and just one thing I wanna call out of the film festival, this year one of the featured screenings is on the 19th at, at the Music Box.
Adam RubinGUEST
Great.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
The, the, the corner of Clark and LaSalle is a parking lot.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
It's a parking lot for the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Chicago History Museum, which are both right there.
Carol HughesHOST
Mm-hmm.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
Uh, they broke ground to build the parking lot in the year 1998, and they dug up 81 caskets in 1998.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
Yeah, that is really the only remaining, um, mausoleum left from the City Cemetery days.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
It is the Couch tomb.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
Uh, it's right on, uh, LaSalle and Clark Street, just behind the Chicago History Museum.
Tony SzabelskiGUEST
It was the burial vault of a man named Ira Couch and his family.
Tail DraggerHOST
Really want it.
Tail DraggerHOST
The sources for today's segment include the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's collection on early black aviators, the Chicago History Museum's archives, and the biography Queen Best Daredevil Aviator by Doris Rich.
Tail DraggerHOST
More at RadioHanger.com. I'm Tail Dragger.
Tail DraggerHOST
Clear skies.
Ursula BielskiHOST
She sold them soon after their completion.
Ursula BielskiHOST
The Chicago Historical Society records show no trace of the peculiar ornamentation on the houses.
Ursula BielskiHOST
A couple who lives in one of the houses, 6011, says that not only the architectural ornamentation is haunting, the house itself has a ghost.
Ursula BielskiHOST
Plagued for years by the sound of footsteps upstairs, the tenants took to actually padlocking the door to the stairwell at night and unlocking it in the morning.
Jacoby CochranHOST
Yeah.
Jacoby CochranHOST
The ceremony is being held at the Chicago History Museum on November 5th at 530.
Jacoby CochranHOST
I will drop a link in the show notes for you.
Jacoby CochranHOST
Yanani, were you familiar with the LGBT Hall of Fame?
speaker_0HOST
We all got graded on this nonsense, and I'm about to show you just how impossible this is.
speaker_0HOST
And then I'm going to email the Chicago History Museum, and I'm about to ruin the mainstream story hour forever.
speaker_0HOST
We want the documents.
speaker_0HOST
It's time to show us exactly how many hammers and chisels were purchased.
5 MINS LATER
speaker_0HOST
There are no haul schedules, no quantities listed.
speaker_0HOST
All of this is undocumented.
speaker_0HOST
And so like I said earlier, we have sent the Chicago History Museum an email.
speaker_0HOST
We want the records of construction.
speaker_2HOST
And today I'm gonna show this entire map to the world.
speaker_2HOST
A map that's been hiding in the Chicago History Museum in a folder that's never been digitized until today.
speaker_2HOST
Are you ready to see which old world buildings these tunnels all connect to? Here we go.
speaker_2HOST
This is one of the most shocking pictures I've ever seen.
David BlightHOST
Hector Davis kept tremendous records.
David BlightHOST
He kept account books, And one of those account books ended up in the Chicago Historical Society after the Civil War, because it was confiscated by an Illinois regiment that took it home.
David BlightHOST
And I worked with that account book, because one of the two slaves I write about in this new book called A Slave No More, I published their two narratives, was indeed a young fourteen-year-old teenager sold out of North Carolina, from Snow Hill, North Carolina.
David BlightHOST
He was sold in 1860 to Hector Davis in Richmond.
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