Skip to main content
Home
View My Favorites

Search the middle of everything...

Shedd Aquarium

Things To Do

Places To Go in Illinois

Plan Your Trip

Accessibility in Illinois

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.

Images

DSCN1264-300x225

How to find us?

Back to Listings

What's happening nearby...

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

Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Oct 12

Running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is the pinnacle of achievement for elite athletes and everyday runners alike.

Read more about Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Chicago International Film Festival

Oct 15 – Oct 26

Welcome to North America’s longest-running competitive film festival. With more than 120 feature films and 70 shorts films from around the world, this year’s festival is…

Read more about Chicago International Film Festival

You might also be interested...

Charnley-Persky House Museum

Chicago

Read more about Charnley-Persky House Museum

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Chicago

Read more about Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

National Hellenic Museum

Chicago

Greek Public History Museum in Chicago

Read more about National Hellenic Museum

Share your Moments

#EnjoyIllinois

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

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