History gets weird inside Chicago’s offbeat museums

Chicago’s true character often resides in lesser-known institutions tucked into neighborhoods, repurposed buildings, and even historic homes. The city offers a wildly diverse and wonderfully weird collection of museums you won’t find anywhere else.

International Museum of Surgical Science – Gold Coast

This museum is housed in a historic mansion once owned by Eleanor Robinson Countiss, the daughter of a Diamond Match Co. executive. It offers a glimpse into the history of medicine. From ancient skull drills to modern surgical tools, exhibits feature life-sized models and unsettling wax figures that reveal the breakthroughs andhorrors of pastmedical practices.

Leather Archives & Museum – Rogers Park

There’s a museum devoted to preserving and celebrating the history of leather as a subculture. It offers an unfiltered look into an alternative intimacy community that is often overlooked in mainstream history. With rotating exhibits, an extensive library, and rare archival materials, it’s best suited for an adult audience.

McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum – Loop

Visitors climb five spiral stories tucked into a historic bridge tower that houses a working drawbridge. Learn about the river’s transformation from an industrial dumping ground to an award-winning waterway. The real thrill? Watching the gears turn during a live bridge lift.

The Insect Asylum – Irving Park

This whimsical space blends art and science. Part lab, part Victorian oddities shop, thousands of pinned bugs turn entomology into unexpected delight.

Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation – South Loop

Located in the historic Chess Records studio, this museum pays tribute to the giants of blues and rock who recorded within its walls. From Muddy Waters to the Rolling Stones, this is hallowed ground for music lovers.

Walt Disney Birthplace – North Lawndale

Tours of the restored childhood home of the animation legend offer a glimpse into Disney’s early life in Chicago and the beginnings of a creative empire.

Klairmont Kollections – Hermosa

This museum is a must for gearheads and vintage lovers. Housing over 300 classic and custom cars, it’s automotive eye candy at its finest.

National Public Housing Museum – Near West Side

The lived experiences of families who once called public housing home come alive as this museum preserves the past through oral histories and immersive exhibits, highlighting resilience, struggle, and community.

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art – West Town

Art takes an unconventional turn at this gem, focusing on self-taught, marginalized, and visionary creators. From Henry Darger’s surreal dreamscapes to rotating outsider exhibits, Intuit lives up to its name.

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Chicago Maritime Museum – Bridgeport

An intimate look into Chicago’s rich relationship with its waterways, featuring shipwrecks, schooners, and the vital role the river played in shaping the city’s commerce and culture.

Hummell Museum – Rosemont

The suburban museum has the world’s largest collection of M.I. Hummel figurines. Over 1,000 intricately crafted porcelain figures, amassed by the late mayor of Rosemont, offer a nostalgic glimpse into mid-century European craftsmanship.

Federal Reserve's Money Museum – Loop

This free, interactive museum allows visitors to handle shredded cash, test counterfeit detection, and pose with a million dollars' worth of $100 bills.

Board of Trade Building Museum – Loop

Inside a 1930 Art Deco landmark, this free museum traces Chicago’s trading legacy, from open-outcry pits to digital screens. Artifacts, displays, and trader stories capture the city’s evolution as a financial hub.

Historic Pullman Foundation – Pullman

This museum on the site of America’s first planned industrial community tells the story of labor, innovation, and the rise of the middle class.

Museum of Illusions – Loop

A museum that’s part science, part selfie opportunity, with gravity-defying rooms and optical tricks to remind visitors that not everything in a museum has to be behind glass.

Together, these museums reflect the spirit of Chicago: bold, scrappy, eclectic, and endlessly curious. Try one this summer.