DuSable Museum of African American History , musem in chicago

DuSable Museum of African American History,,,,

The DuSable Museum of African American History was founded in 1961 by Dr. Margaret Burroughs and her husband, Charles Burroughs. Dr. Burroughs is an artist, teacher, and art historian. 

DuSable Museum of African American History - outside : 

 

 

 The museum is dedicated to preserving, studying, and exploring the experience of Americans of African descent. The collections and programming cover a wide range of topics, including arts, culture, and the collection and preservation of more than 50,000 artifacts. It is one of the only independent institutions of its kind in the country.

The museum was named for explorer Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, who was among the first settlers to arrive in Chicago in 1779.

 History of DuSable Museum of African American History,,,

 

 The DuSable Museum was originally chartered on February 16, 1961.Its origins as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art began following the work of Margaret and Charles Burroughs to correct the perceived omission of black history and culture in the education establishment.The museum was originally located on the ground floor of the Burroughs' home at 3806 S. Michigan Avenue. In 1968, the museum was renamed for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haitian fur trader and the first non-Native-American permanent settler in Chicago.[6][7] During the 1960s, the museum and the South Side Community Art Center, which was located across the street, founded by Taylor-Burroughs and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt, formed an African American cultural corridor. This original museum site had previously been a boarding house for African American railroad workers.[6]
The DuSable Museum quickly filled a void caused by limited cultural resources then available to African Americans in Chicago. It became an educational resource for African American history and culture and a focal point in Chicago for black social activism. The museum has hosted political fundraisers, community festivals, and various events serving the black community. The museum's model has been emulated in numerous other cities around the country, including Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.


The Harold Washington Wing
In 1973, the Chicago Park District donated the usage of a park administration building in Washington Park as the site for the museum.The current location once served as a lockup facility for the Chicago Police Department. in 1993, the museum expanded with the addition of a new wing named in honor of the late Mayor Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago.In 2004, the original building became a contributing building to the Washington Park United States Registered Historic District which is a National Register of Historic Places listing.[
The DuSable Museum is the oldest and largest caretaker of African American culture in the United States. Over its long history, it has expanded as necessary to reflect the increased interest in black culture.This willingness to adapt has allowed it to survive while other museums faltered due to a weakening economy and decreased public support.The museum was the eighth one located on Park District land.Although it focuses on exhibiting African American culture, it is one of several Chicago museums that celebrates Chicago's ethnic and cultural heritage.
Antoinette Wright, director of the DuSable Museum, has said that African American art has grown out of a need for the culture to preserve its history orally and in art due to historical obstacles to other forms of documentation. She also believes that the museum serves as a motivational tool for members of a culture that has experienced extensive negativity.In the 1980s, African American museums such as the DuSable endured the controversy of whether negative aspects of the cultural history should be memorialized.In the 1990s, the African American genre of museum began to flourish despite financial difficulties.

Facilities  :

 

 The original north entrance contains the main lobby of the museum and features the Thomas Miller mosaics, which honor the institution's founders. The building was designed c.1915 by D.H. Burnham and Company to serve as the South Park Administration Building in Washington Park on the city's south side.[3] The new wing is 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2). The museum has a 466-seat auditorium, which is part of the new wing, that hosts community-related events, such as a jazz and blues music series, poetry readings, film screenings, and other cultural events. The museum also has a gift shop and a research library.[4] As of 2001, the museum operated with a US$2.7 million budget, compared to a $55.7M budget for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.The museum's funding is partially dependent upon a Chicago Park District tax levy.
After the 1993 expansion of the new wing, the museum contained 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) of exhibition space. The $4 million expansion was funded by a $2 million matching funds grant from city and state officials.

 

Chicago History Museum , museum in chicago

Chicago History Museum ,,,,,

Formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago History Museum has been collecting, interpreting, protecting, and housing the city's history since 1856. 

 Chicago History Museum  - outside :

 

Their collections include more than 22 million items spanning seven categories: Archives and Manuscripts, Architecture, Costumes, Deocrative and Industrial Arts, Prints and Photographs, Painting and Sculpture, and Library materials.

History of Chicago History Museum :

 

 Much of the early collection of the Chicago Historical Society was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, but like the city, the museum rose from the ashes. Among its many documents which were lost in the fire was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, hand-written by Abraham Lincoln.[1] After the fire, the Society began collecting new materials, which were stored in a building owned by J. Young Scammon, a prominent lawyer and member of the society. However, the building and new collection were again destroyed by fire in 1874. The Chicago Historical Society built a fireproof building on the site of its pre-1871 building at 632 North Dearborn Street. The replacement building opened in 1896 and, after housing the collection for thirty-six years, was used for several purposes and remained vacant for periods until being transformed into a nightclub in 1985. This impressively massive Richardsonian Romanesque building is currently the home of the Excalibur nightclub. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.


1896-1932 home of the Chicago Historical Society
In 1920, the Society purchased the large history collection of Charles F. Gunther with the intention of changing its focus from only a research institution into a public museum. Many of the items in Gunther's collection, in addition to Chicago, were related to Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. These include Lincoln's deathbed and several furniture pieces from the room where he died in Petersen House and clothing he and wife Mary Todd Lincoln allegedly wore the evening of his assassination.

 Building :

 

 After 36 years in the Henry Ives Cobb structure on North Dearborn Street, the museum and library moved to the current structure in Lincoln Park. The current home of the museum was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and constructed in 1932 by the WPA, with the aim of creating an expanded public museum.
The 1932 Federal-style structure has been expanded twice. The first addition, clad in limestone, opened in 1972 and was designed by Alfred Shaw and Associates. The second addition, designed by Holabird and Root, was made in 1988 and included refacing the earlier expansion in red brick to give a unified look to all three portions of the building. Both expansions occurred on the west side of the 1932 structure, leaving intact its original porticoed entrance facing Lincoln Park.[4] The main entrance and reception hall, however, was moved to the new western addition facing Clark street. The 1988 extension, in addition to expanded exhibition galleries, also contains the museum's store and public cafe.