Interactive Carts Get your hands on history! Look for carts throughout the Museum to try your hand at a variety of historical activities and learn more about our collections. Peek through a stereoscope or use a press to print a card. Carts are available most days—check in at the information desks when you arrive for that day’s schedule.
Historic Theatre Step right into history! Meet Mary Pickersgill, the maker of the Star Spangled Banner. Or make a move for freedom as a Civil Rights worker trains you in the fine points of “Sitting in”! Check in at the information desks when you arrive for locations.
Invention at Play Open through November 27, 2011, this interactive exhibition for families is located in the new Lemelson Hall of Invention. With its highly interactive and engaging activities, it focuses on the similarities between the ways children and adults play and the creative skills and processes used by inventors. Visitors of all ages will experience various playful habits of mind that underlie invention, such as curiosity, imagination, visual thinking, model building, and problem solving.
Spotlight Tours Docents stationed in selected exhibitions lead 15-minute overview tours and circulate through the galleries to answer questions and discuss the exhibition. Check in at the Welcome Center when you arrive for locations.
Exhibitions The Museum has many exhibitions, both big and small. Ride a Chicago “L” train car from the 1950s and meet some of your fellow passengers in America on the Move or step into a president's shoes by reading a famous speech in The American Presidency.
Self-Guided Tours
Take one of our free, self-guided tours of the Museum. Each tour takes about an hour. Pick up a guide from the information desks at the Museum or download one here.
