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. The building alone, sitting in Jackson Park overlooking the lagoon that Frederick Law Olmsted designed for the fair, is worth the trip to Hyde Park.
The collection is spectacular in its range. A captured German U-505 submarine — the only one on display in the Western Hemisphere — sits in an underground gallery that explains how US Navy sailors boarded and captured a functioning U-boat in 1944, seizing Enigma codebooks that helped win the war. A full-sized coal mine (built in 1933 using actual mining equipment) descends beneath the museum floor. A Pioneer Zephyr streamlined train, a 727 fuselage you can walk through, a working model railroad that fills an entire room, a mirror maze, a tornado simulator — the museum treats science as something you experience rather than read about.
The Colleen Moore Fairy Castle — a miniature castle containing the smallest Bible in the world, real diamond chandeliers, and gold fixtures — has been a peculiar highlight since 1949. The Science Storms exhibit fills a three-story atrium with demonstrations of tornadoes, tsunamis, lightning, and fire. The museum takes a minimum of three hours to see properly, and children under 12 may never want to leave.
Verified Facts
The museum is housed in the only surviving building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
A captured German U-505 submarine is displayed in the museum
It is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere
The coal mine exhibit has been operating since 1933
Get walking directions
5700 S DuSable Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60637
