Chicago History Museum

What Chicago History Museum does

The Chicago History Museum is a private nonprofit cultural institution based in Chicago, Illinois, operating since 1856 (incorporated in 1857 by act of the Illinois state legislature and renamed from the Chicago Historical Society in February 2006). It preserves and interprets more than 23 million objects documenting Chicago's evolution through exhibitions such as the permanent Chicago: Crossroads of America, Sensing Chicago, and Imagining Chicago: The Dioramas, alongside rotating shows including Aquí en Chicago, Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s-70s, and Injustice: The Trial for the Murder of Emmett Till. Core services also include the Abakanowicz Research Center (with the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History and the ARCHIE online catalog powered by SirsiDynix Enterprise), K-12 education through the Chicago Learning Collaborative (Chicago Literacies and Chicago Artivism), expert-led walking and trolley tours, and the CHM Images commercial licensing platform covering 370,000+ digital assets.

The institution derives revenue from a diversified mix of paid general admission (with free Illinois-resident days), paid walking and trolley tours ($25-$45), annual memberships, donations and foundation grants (MacArthur, IMLS, NEH, Polk Bros., Segal Family, Delmas), the annual Making History Awards fundraiser, private event rentals of museum spaces, on-site and online museum store retail, and image licensing through the CHM Images platform. It serves K-12 students (free field trips for Illinois students through Chicago Public Schools and 21 other partner schools), 10 university partners (DePaul, Loyola, UIC, Columbia College, IIT, and others), individual members and tourists (66,000+ annual general admission visitors and 27,000+ student field-trip visitors), 5,573 annual researchers in 2024, filmmakers and journalists, and event-hosting clients. Operating income is supplemented by Chicago Park District support on behalf of the city, while the museum is governed by an independent Board of Trustees.

Operations are led on an interim basis by Michael Anderson (Edgar D. and Deborah R. Jannotta President & CEO), with curatorial leadership including the Chief Historian and Director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, the Curator of Civic Engagement & Social Justice leading Aquí en Chicago, and the Curator of Religion and Community History, supported by a Digital Humanities Fellow. Technology is anchored on SirsiDynix Enterprise for the ARCHIE research catalog and Blackbaud for ticketing, with distribution across an on-site museum store, group tour reservations, image-licensing storefront, and a multi-channel digital presence including email newsletters, social platforms, a museum blog, and the Building Aquí podcast.

Name

Chicago History Museum

Legal name

Chicago Historical Society

Website

https://chicagohistory.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1856

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Chicago History Museum is a private nonprofit cultural institution in Chicago that preserves and interprets more than 23 million objects through permanent and rotating exhibitions, an Abakanowicz Research Center, K-12 education programs, walking tours, and a commercial image-licensing platform serving visitors, students, researchers, and media.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Museum and Historical Institution

NAICS

Museums (712110), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

History Museums (THAJADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cultural Heritage Institutions (Archives, Historic Houses, Monuments Foundations) (THAJADAI), History, Heritage & Museum-Focused Study Tours (THAKAGAN)

Keywords

• History museum exhibitions
• Archival research services
• Educational programs
• Cultural heritage preservation
• Community learning initiatives

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Admission Tickets: General admission tickets sold to visitors with free days for Illinois residents. Ticket sales processed through Blackbaud hosting platform.
2. Tours and Programs: Revenue from walking tours ($25-$45), trolley tours, and special programs. Member events include free and discounted pricing.
3. Membership: Annual memberships offering free admission, behind-the-scenes experiences, special discounts, and invitations to member-only events.
4. Making History Awards: Annual fundraising event honoring individuals and corporations, providing vital financial support to museum operations and programs. Ticket sales and contributions.
5. Donations and Grants: Support from foundations and individual donors for specific programs and initiatives such as Aquí en Chicago, Chicago Learning Collaborative, and capital improvements.
6. Event Hosting: Facility rentals for private events including the McCormick Theater, Chicago Rooms, and other event spaces.
7. Image Licensing: Commercial and editorial licensing of over 370,000 images from the collection through the CHM Images platform and rights & reproductions team.
8. Museum Store: Retail sales at the on-site museum store and online, offering merchandise, books, and historical items with volunteer discounts.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels10 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

The Chicago History Museum operates a portfolio of permanent and rotating exhibitions on Chicago and U.S. history, including Chicago: Crossroads of America, Sensing Chicago, Imagining Chicago: The Dioramas, and Aquí en Chicago. It delivers guided walking and trolley tours, K-12 educational programs through the Chicago Learning Collaborative, archival research services via the Abakanowicz Research Center and ARCHIE catalog, image licensing through CHM Images, museum store retail, and private event venue rentals. The institution funds operations through admissions, memberships, donations, grants, sponsorships, and licensing revenue.

Product overview

The Chicago History Museum operates as a multi-faceted cultural institution offering a portfolio of interconnected exhibitions, research services, and educational programs. Its permanent exhibitions include Chicago: Crossroads of America, Sensing Chicago, and Imagining Chicago: The Dioramas, complemented by rotating exhibitions such as Aquí en Chicago and Designing for Change. The museum provides research access through the Abakanowicz Research Center (ARC) and the ARCHIE online catalog, while its education division delivers K-12 programs including Chicago Learning Collaborative, Chicago Literacies, and Chicago Artivism. Public engagement offerings include walking tours, trolley tours, and the CHM Images licensing platform. The museum connects visitors to Chicago's history through dynamic exhibitions, tours, publications, special events, and programming.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Aquí en Chicago A community-led exhibition tracing the lives of Latino/a/e communities that have maintained a persistent cultural presence and flourished in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, featuring oral histories, community workshops, a podcast, and a digital scrapbook.
• Chicago: Crossroads of America A permanent exhibition exploring the city's history through five thematic areas: City on the Make, City in Crisis, Sweet Home Chicago, Second to None, and My Kind of Town, featuring artifacts from the museum's collection including the iconic L car no. 1.
• Sensing Chicago An interactive permanent exhibition designed for younger visitors that uses the five senses to uncover Chicago history, allowing children to feel what it was like during the Great Chicago Fire, hear an L train, smell the wild onion that gave Chicago its name, and more.
• Imagining Chicago: The Dioramas German-crafted dioramas from the early 1930s depicting Chicago's transformation from a settler-colonist trading outpost in 1804 to the bustling city of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.
• Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s-70s Exhibition exploring how Chicago activists in the 1960s and '70s used design to amplify their visions of a more just world and to fight for social change.
• Injustice: The Trial for the Murder of Emmett Till Exhibition on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, and the subsequent criminal trial in Mississippi that attracted international attention and sparked the Civil Rights Movement.
• US at 250: Carlos Flores & Deon Reed Exhibition of portable, altar-inspired monuments by artists Carlos Flores and Deon Reed presented in response to the Northwest Ordinance as part of the US at 250 Civic Action programming.
• Abakanowicz Research Center (ARC) A premier research facility housing the museum's archives, manuscripts, photographs, and more than 1 million publications, providing free admission and serving as the primary destination for researchers, students, genealogists, and the general public.
• Studs Terkel Center for Oral History A center dedicated to oral history collections, including the Latine Oral History Collection and Indigenous Language recordings, preserving personal narratives and community histories.
• Chicago Learning Collaborative A K-12 museum education initiative providing students meaningful learning experiences centered around Chicago history with diverse narratives and perspectives, encompassing Chicago Literacies for grades 3-5 and Chicago Artivism for grades 9-12.
• Walking and Trolley Tours Expert-led walking tours and trolley tours exploring various Chicago neighborhoods and historical sites, including Gold Coast, Historic Old Town, Historic Prairie Avenue, and LGBTQIA+ history tours.
• CHM Images A platform for licensing and downloading over 370,000 images from the museum's collection for editorial and commercial use, operated by the museum's rights and reproductions team.
• CHM Museum Store On-site retail store at the museum offering merchandise, books, and historical items, with online ordering and a 15% discount for members and volunteers.
• Private Event Hosting Facility rentals for private events including the McCormick Theater, Chicago Rooms, and other event spaces, available for corporate events, weddings, and galas.
• Museum Membership Annual membership program offering free admission, behind-the-scenes experiences, special discounts on tours and store purchases, and invitations to member-only events.

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• OpenlandsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2023Environmental organization that co-hosted a tree planting day in October 2023, planting 23 new trees in Lincoln Park and around the museum campus.
• Congressman Mike QuigleyminorOthers · 1 October 2023US Representative who partnered with the museum for the October 2023 tree planting day in Lincoln Park.
• University Partners (10 institutions)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with 10 Chicago-area universities providing free admission and reduced pricing for group visits. Partners include American Islamic College, Chicago City Colleges, Columbia College, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Lake Forest College, Loyola University Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Roosevelt University, and University of Illinois Chicago.
• Landmark Uptown Theater CorpminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for the Uptown Theatre Centennial pop-up display within the Chicago: Crossroads of America exhibition, featuring photographs and archival materials.
• Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy (IJLA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHigh school students from IJLA protested the museum in 2019 for lack of Latino/a/e representation, inspiring the Aquí en Chicago project. IJLA alumni now serve as paid interns and collaborators.
• Chicago Public SchoolscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner school districts for Chicago Learning Collaborative programs including Chicago Literacies and Chicago Artivism, serving over 22 schools and 62 educators.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Field Museum: Major Chicago natural history museum also offering permanent and rotating exhibitions, research collections, membership programs, and K-12 educational field trip services. Directly comparable in scale, mission, and visitor base within the same Chicago cultural-institution market.
• Art Institute of Chicago: One of the largest art museums in the U.S., headquartered in Chicago with comparable permanent exhibitions, paid membership programs, research libraries, school partnerships, and event venue rentals — overlapping closely in operating model.
• DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center: Chicago-based history museum focused on African American history with permanent and traveling exhibitions, educational programming, and community-led collection work — directly comparable in subject focus and Chicago cultural-institution positioning.
• New-York Historical Society: America's oldest museum, focused on New York and U.S. history, with permanent exhibitions, a research library, K-12 educational programs, and a membership model — the closest historical-society peer to Chicago History Museum in mission and structure.
• Museum of Science and Industry: Chicago-based interactive museum offering exhibitions, field trips, memberships, and event hosting with comparable scale and educational programming for K-12 and family audiences.

Others

• Blackbaud: Software vendor whose ticketing and donation platform (Blackbaud) the Chicago History Museum uses for online admissions and membership transactions — relevant as a critical technology infrastructure peer in the museum operating stack.

Regional players

• Chicago Architecture Center: Chicago-based cultural institution offering exhibitions, walking tours, and educational programs focused on the built environment — competing for the same Chicago visitor, tour, and field-trip audiences.
• Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center: Chicago-area history museum with permanent exhibitions, K-12 field trip programs, docent-led tours, and community-driven educational outreach — directly comparable in operating model within the regional market.

Emerging players

• Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art: Mid-sized regional history and cultural museum with collections, exhibitions, and educational programming, comparable in scope to a single-city history museum even if geographically distant.

Broad incumbents

• Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Federal U.S. history museum with massive collection, research archives, exhibitions, and educational programming; broader scale and federal funding but overlapping in mission to interpret American history for public education.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/chicagomuseum
• Facebookfacebook.com/chicagohistory
• Instagraminstagram.com/chicagomuseum
• Pinterestpinterest.com/chicagomuseum
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chicago-historical-society

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Chicago History Museum