Adler Planetarium
1300 S DuSable Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605
The Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere when it opened in 1930, and its location on the tip of a peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan gives it the best skyline view in Chicago — a fact that the architects clearly knew, because the building is positioned so that the city rises directly behind you as you enter.
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
The Art Institute of Chicago has been rated the best museum in the world by TripAdvisor multiple years running, and that ranking is not hyperbole — this is a collection that holds Seurat's 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,' Hopper's 'Nighthawks,' Wood's 'American Gothic,' and the finest Impressionist collection outside Paris, all under one roof with free admission on certain days.
Field Museum of Natural History
1400 S DuSable Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605
The Field Museum is home to SUE — the largest, most complete, and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered — and 40 million other artifacts spanning 4.
Museum of Science and Industry
5700 S DuSable Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60637
The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, housed in the only surviving building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition — the Palace of Fine Arts, a Beaux-Arts behemoth that was rebuilt in permanent materials after the original plaster-and-staff structure began to crumble.
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W 19th St, Chicago, IL 60608
The National Museum of Mexican Art is the largest Latino cultural institution in the United States, holds a permanent collection of over 10,000 works spanning 3,000 years of Mexican art, and has never charged admission in its 40-year history.
Shedd Aquarium
1200 S DuSable Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605
The Shedd Aquarium sits on Lake Michigan's shore and houses 32,000 animals — which makes it one of the largest indoor aquariums in the world and creates the slightly surreal experience of watching beluga whales swim with the Chicago skyline visible through the windows behind them.
Explore museum in Chicago
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