Curator Elena Gonzales positions Future Homes, Future Ancestors with Senior Collections Manager Alli Pohl, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, 2025. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
This edition of Exploring the Archives provides community members an opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at selected items from Chicago History Museum’s architectural and place-based collections, accessible to public researchers through the Abakanowicz Research Center.
In this edition, three public historians will select items from the collection and discuss them in relationship to overlooked social histories, community connections, and impacts on broader Chicago history (and beyond). Attendees will also hear from CHM staff about efforts to increase access to and awareness of CHM’s architectural collections through the Digital Futures and Chicago Sacred Initiatives.
Digital Humanities Fellow Jojo Galvan recording oral histories with the Kichwa Community of Chicago, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, 2024. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
Curator Rebekah Coffman in the Abakanowicz Research Center, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, 2026. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
About the Chicago History Museum and the Abakanowicz Research Center
The Abakanowicz Research Center (ARC) serves the Research Collections of the Chicago History Museum, which comprises printed material, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, architectural drawings, and assorted ephemera. The Chicago History Museum is situated on ancestral homelands of the Potawatomi people, who cared for the land until forced out by non-Native settlers. Established in 1856, the Museum is now at 1601 N. Clark Street in Lincoln Park, its third location.
A major museum and research center for Chicago and U.S. history, the Chicago History Museum strives to be a destination for learning, inspiration and civic engagement. Through dynamic exhibitions, tours, publications, special events, and programming, the Museum connects people to Chicago’s history and to each other.
To share Chicago stories, the Museum collects and preserves millions of artifacts, documents, images, and other items that are relevant to the city’s history. The Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chicago Park District on behalf of the people of Chicago.
