01/14/2022
Luxury Hotel Near Chicago’s Best Museums
It’s no exaggeration to say that Chicago boasts some of the finest museums in the world. And with a luxury perch at Hotel Chicago, a boutique Autograph Collection hotel smack dab in the vibrant River North neighborhood of the Near North Side, you’re beautifully positioned to explore the breadth and quality of the city’s interpretive institutions.
Here’s a look at just a few of the renowned museums that call the Windy City home, and that await your sense of inquiry and wonder when you next stay at a Hotel Chicago room or suite!
The Field Museum of Natural History (1400 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive)
One of America’s truly iconic museums, the Field Museum has been dazzling both young and old since the 1890s. From the African-elephant mounts of the Stanley Field Hall to an extraordinary Ancient Egypt collection, the Field Museum never disappoints. These days, you can pay your respects not only to the famous T. rex Sue but also a mindbogglingly monumental cast of the biggest dinosaur yet excavated: the Patagonian titanosaur specimen aptly named Máximo.
Current exhibitions at the Field Museum include Pokagon Potawatomi Black Ash Baskets: Our Storytellers and Wild Color, which rounds up some of the museum collection’s most vibrant and varied natural hues.
The Art Institute of Chicago (111 S. Michigan Ave)
The Art Institute is worth visiting for the photo op outside alone: the noble bronze lions greeting visitors up the museum’s steps. Naturally, though, what’s within is the real treasury. The permanent collection boasts nearly 300,000 pieces, among them many legendary ones: Picasso’s Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon, and more.
There are, per usual, a slew of fascinating temporary exhibitions currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, including Subscribe: Artists & Alternative Magazines (through May 2nd) and Morris & Company: The Business of Beauty (through June 13th).
The Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago Ave)
Chicago lays claim to one of the world’s biggest contemporary-art museums in the MCA. Alongside its rich permanent collection, you can currently appreciate such temporary exhibitions as Orkideh Torabi (through March 13th), Grain of Hand: Drawings With Graphite (through April 3rd), and Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared (through June 5th).
The Museum of Science & Industry (5700 S. Lake Shore Drive)
This Hyde Park museum wows with an amazingly wide-ranging collection of exhibits: more than 2,000 of them, in fact. They include the only German U-boat captured during World War II that’s on display in the Western Hemisphere, the historical model railroad setup of The Great Train Story, and the Apollo 8 command module. You can also take in the supersized educational films shown to dazzling effect in MSI’s five-story, wraparound Giant Dome Theater.
The Chicago History Museum (1601 N. Clark St)
Delve into the backstory and incredibly rich heritage of the Windy City—and consider its place within the broader narrative of the United States—at the Chicago History Museum, host to an excellent permanent collection that ranges from President Abraham Lincoln’s deathbed to the Studs Terkel WFMT Oral History Archive. Current exhibitions at the History Museum include City on Fire: Chicago 1871 and Remembering Dr. King (1929-1968).
Take in the Depth & Diversity of Chicago’s Museums on a Hotel Chicago Getaway
Our River North location here at Hotel Chicago puts the above museums—and many other fine ones we didn’t have room to mention, mind you!—at your fingertips. Join us for boutique luxury and expand your mind in the Windy City!
