Chinese-American Museum of Chicago; National Museum of Mexican Arts; The Polish Museum of America; and National Hellenic Museum

Chicago is known for its ethnic neighborhoods and the long history of its immigrant communities. In the early twentieth century the Chicago school of urban sociology posited an influential model of residential settlement and immigrant adaptation based on observations of researchers in the city's neighborhoods. To some extent the theories associated with the Chicago school remain influential in urban studies. The city boasts at least fifteen different museums with a focus on the heritage and culture of ethnic communities. The following review is based on a visit to four ethnic museums of Chicago on a single day in July 2016, briefly examining permanent and temporary exhibits at each institution. I started with the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, located in Chinatown, where it opened in 2005 and recovered from a 2008 fire. I visited late on a Sunday morning, and the Chinatown neighborhood on the city's south side was a lively place with many shoppers and diners. Two exhibits were on display at this modest-sized museum. I began on the second-floor theater with a short video introducing me to Chicago's Chinatown and the city's Chinese community. In the permanent installation, “Great Wall to Great Lakes: Chinese Immigration to the Midwest,” wall panels and display cases presented information about the city's original Chinatown on Clark Street (downtown), the somewhat later development of the Chinatown near Wentworth and Cermak Avenues (on the South Side), and the Chinatown near Argyle Street (on the North Side). Considerable information was provided in this exhibit about milestones in the history of the Chinese population in the Chicago area, with an emphasis on the primary Southside Chinatown. Next, I was accompanied by museum volunteers to the first floor where I viewed the fairly recently installed exhibit “Rites of Passage,” focusing on important life events in Chinese culture such as births, weddings, and funerals. The exhibit featured numerous display cases with accompanying labels intended to help visitors learn how these important life events are experienced in China and the United States. A small gift shop of books and other items related to Chinese Americans and Chinese culture is provided at the front of the museum

Archaeology · Art · Chinatown · Chinese americans · Downtown · Ethnic group · Geography · Immigration · Media studies · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy