GRAVITY FREE: 2009
Conference Venue: Chicago History Museum
The Chicago History Museum cares for, showcases, and interprets millions of authentic pieces of Chicago and U.S. history. Our ability to
illuminate the past is a reminder of what really happened once upon a time, sheds light on the present, and compellingly informs the future.
The Chicago History Museum was founded in 1856 as the city's first cultural institution. The collections include over 22 million items organized
into seven main holdings: Archives and Manuscripts, Architecture, Costumes, Decorative and Industrial Arts, Prints and Photographs, Painting and
Sculpture, and Library materials. Nationally recognized for its major collections, the Chicago History Museum specializes in the diverse and
evolving history of Chicago and Illinois, as well as selected areas of American history.
What's New
With the milestone of our 150th anniversary in 2006, the Chicago History Museum emerged as a renovated facility with completely re-interpreted and
re-installed galleries. The first floor features a new children's gallery complete with interactive activities, artifact displays, and
reproductions, as well as a new permanent costume and textile gallery highlighting our extensive costume collection. The second floor includes
new gallery spaces, a brand new event space with stunning views of Lincoln Park, and a completely fresh approach to telling the story of Chicago
in the 16,000-square-foot gallery, "Chicago: Crossroads of America."
Chic Chicago
In addition to our permanent exhibits, a brand new gallery is about to be unveiled. "Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures" provides the rare
opportunity to see more than 50 of the greatest couture treasures from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition will feature Gilded Age gowns by
Worth and Pingat to modern masterpieces by Chanel and Versace. The exhibition is a testimony to Chicago women of style who supported innovative
fashion designers in the hope of claiming Chicago as chic. Fashion, they believed, was the most dramatic way to re-imagine Chicago as a
sophisticated and cultured city. By purchasing and wearing couture fashion, these women aspired to overcome the city’s image as a gritty,
industrial, working-class metropolis and its negative reputations as hog butcher to the world, gangland, and the second city. The exhibition
displays some of the most significant pieces that helped shape fashion history.
Location
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
312.642.4600