Swedish American Museum — Attraction in Lake View Township

Located in a busy Andersonville neighborhood, this small museum is surrounded by small retail shops, eateries, and bars! I've always passed this establishment up partly due to all the meter parking vs free parking in the area. I was told this museum has its own lot and have to register the car in the front desk. Well if it's free, it's for me I always say!

Upon entry, the museum store is to the left and pay admission fee. We passed up in buying trinkets, makes sure you check out the Christmas clearance rack, dalas, peppi longstockings, and chocolates!

The 2rd floor is the exhibits section. I love the replica Viking ships, and the life like mannequins. Too dark and creepy for my 4 year old, she believes these were real! I also love the religious section that has the wedding crowns.

The 3rd floor is a interactive part of museum, better known as Brink Children's Museum of Immigration, where we spent the most time. My daughter opted out wearing the old fashioned Swedish costume for her pretend play. The props I found cute were water pump, washboard, cream separator, fishing poles with magnetic fishes, gardens, and Dala horse!

The 3rd floor is divided into 5 sections: 1.) Swedish farm 2.) Ticket booth to a steamship 3.) Viking ship 4.) Inside a Apollo 11 space mission. Wait, what?!?! I thought the space mission section was pretty random until I found out that the 2nd person to set foot on the moon (Buzz Aldrin) is the grandchild of Swedish-American immigrants.

I applaud if you read this far of my review: Other random facts about Buzz Aldrin: he was the first to urinate on the moon and the first to perform communion on the moon-at least according to the Swedish American...

A cute museum with interesting history and culture. Spent a short time in this museum exploring the immigration history of the Swedes moving to America. This history is detailed on the wall and displayed with a wooden boat to represent their voyage to America and the farms and houses they built while they settled down. Besides tracing a history of how they immigrated here, the ship, the houses, the farm wagons and etc on display are available for the children to explore and play on. I especially love how this museum is rich with history of years gone past, and it recaptures how lives used to be. This is a great place to bring your children here to have hands on fun and also educational at the same time, while also exploring a migrant's history...

I am not Swedish but I do find the history of immigration to America interesting, and at $6 per adult, this was well worth the cost of admission. It focuses mainly on Swedish immigration to Chicago and the history and culture of the old Swede Town and Andersonville, though the special exhibit on Karin Larsson (the wife of the famous painter Carl Larsson) has a decent amount of information on the social changes ongoing in Sweden in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

It's a great way to spend 2-3 hours (depending on how fast you read the placards). I didn't visit the children's exhibit on the third floor, but the non-children's exhibits are plenty interesting for adults.

The bathrooms were also very well-kept and the cafe...