Skip to main content

Search the middle of everything...

Shedd Aquarium

Swedish American Museum

5211 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60640

Museums

You don?t have to be Swedish to visit Chicago?s Swedish-American Museum! The Museum has something for everyone?an art gallery, immigration exhibit, children?s museum, genealogy center, and a gift shop featuring a beautiful selection of handcrafted Scandinavian gifts. Established in 1976, the Swedish American Museum is a bustling center of Swedish art, history, and culture. A full program of exhibits, programs, and events keeps the building humming with activity seven days a week. The Museum is located in Andersonville, Chicago?s historically Swedish neighborhood, which is now a mosaic of multiethnic shops and restaurants. The Museum?s main exhibit, The Dream of America: Swedish Immigration to Chicago, displays hundreds of artifacts, pictures, and descriptions of the mass immigration of Swedes to the Chicago area beginning in the late 1800s. Visitors learn about the struggles of these early immigrants and see how they forged new lives in their new land. Youngsters will love the Brunk Children?s Museum of Immigration, a hands-on, interactive journey through history for ages 3 to 12. Donning costumes, children churn butter, milk a cow, and gather eggs on the 19th century Swedish farm. Then they pack an immigrant?s trunk and board a steamer for the New World. On arriving in America, they move into a pioneer log cabin home and begin their life in the new country. At the Nordic Family Genealogy Center, visitors can trace their roots and research their Swedish ancestry with the assistance of trained volunteers. The Museum?s first-floor gallery features special exhibits of folk art, paintings, sculpture, textiles, and glassware created by contemporary Swedish and Swedish-American artists and craftsmen. Before leaving the Museum, visitors will want to stop in the Kerstin Andersson Museum Store where they?ll find linens, jewelry, kitchen utensils, glassware, and a wide selection of fiction, biographies, cookbooks, and children?s books and toys.

What's happening nearby...

Chicago Jazz Festival

Millennium Park •  Aug 28 – Aug 31

Known for its artistic creativity, the Chicago Jazz Festival promotes awareness and appreciation for all forms of jazz through free, quality live musical performance.

Read more about Chicago Jazz Festival

Taste of Chicago - Grant Park

Grant Park  •  Sep 05 – Sep 07 @ 11AM

Taste of Chicago has been a summer staple for more than 40 years. This year, the annual foodie extravaganza will bring both neighborhood pop-up events and…

Read more about Taste of Chicago - Grant Park

Chicago Architecture Biennial - SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change

Sep 19 – Feb 28

The Chicago Architecture Biennial will be the largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America.

Read more about Chicago Architecture Biennial - SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change

You might also be interested...

Chicago Children’s Museum Little Village Laundromat

Chicago

In the Little Village neighborhood, Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM) transformed a laundromat into a vibrant ceiling-to-floor, wall-to-wall exploration of playful math learning accompanied by a mosaic…

Read more about Chicago Children’s Museum Little Village Laundromat

Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum

Chicago

Escape to the Stars in Chicago

Read more about Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum

Jane Addams Hull House Museum

Chicago

Honoring Jane Addams’ legacy, the Hull House explores immigration, labor rights, and social reform. Her pioneering work in justice, activism, and the settlement house movement helped…

Read more about Jane Addams Hull House Museum

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get inspired by top travel stories, gain access to exclusive promotions and contests, and discover even more reasons to #EnjoyIllinois.