Polish Museum of America — Attraction in West Chicago Township

This way to the museyroom, mind your hats! We'll pass Pulaski at Brandywine, exiled noble, seeking glory and freedom in province: See him here, in a litho, with De Kalb and Muhlenberg, La Fayette and Steuben, round the cherrywood chopper: band of misfits, yes, a proper pantheon, some idealogues some soldiers fortune. Imports imports imports: Brought across Enlightenment tactics, in the shape of Prooshian drills & discipline; in the shape of galvanizing gallantry; in the shape of fast-moving, szlachta-style shock troops; in the shape of Francophone diplomacy. And then in the wake of a Spring of Nations, emigres from the Old World bound transatlantic, to take the place of the Forty Niners—winding up in Panna Maria, Téjas, where they were slaved by Comanches—and up to Chicago, to build the Motherseat—and onto Wisconsin, where they bagged cranberry bogs, in contingency against the lies of a mink-man—the Midwest presence of the Pollacks braced & buttressed by the staff of the Worlds Fair pavilion in exile, preserving from that pavilion many Polish painters, Zakopane sculptors, and Torun gingerbread, whose Motherland examples were crushed by the twin boulders of the Germans and the Soviets. Yes, my face is quite alright, thank you for asking. It was bitten by my pitbull Charlie, really the sweetest dog, has required me to get six surgeries and sixty-four stitches, still can't breathe out my nose, but just an angel, the breed has such a reputation but they're really big babies, couldn't hurt a fly. This way, onward please! The Hussars winged to prevent Tatar lasso, that's true, and for theater, like Wagner's Valkyries. Skytroops and angels, Green Berets crossed with Navy Seals, no questions now, next exhibit. The Kossack men painted war panorama; the Kossack women wrote verse. Here is Paderewski, pen in hand, at Versailles, signing on behalf of all the Poles. Imagine if America had been conquered by Chinese and then liberated, and, its government disbanded, Taylor Swift was chosen to sign for every American. Yes, that famous, yes, Padermania, he couldn't step in a water closet without women breaking down the door. Called him the Butcher for the way he treated...

I really wanted to like this museum, however we were treated with such little respect by the staff that it completely ruined our experience. We made reservations to see the museum for the last 45 minutes that they were open. Realizing that this wasn't very much time, we were in a hurry but at the man working at the front desk nearly locked us out and then lectured us in a condescending tone about how we had little time to see the museum while making rude gestures (long sighs and eyerolls) towards us the whole time. After politely insisting several times that we had made the reservations and we were aware of the time they were closing, he let us pay but was still visibly annoyed with us. When we got upstairs, we heard several museum-goers playing what appeared to be a free-to-play piano in the center of the main exhibit. So after nervously looking around for signs saying DO NOT TOUCH, my friends and I decided it would be okay for me to play something on the piano after finding nothing of the sort. Minutes later, the man from the front desk came up behind me and gave me several nonsensical reasons why I could not play their piano. We were all very upset by this so we decided to quickly look through the rest of the museum, but not without the man from the front desk following us at a close distance to surveil us for our entire stay. He even ignored other people that were clearly just messing around on the grand piano to watch over us. I have never been made to feel so singled out by an...

Worth going. Once. I went last year because of the Easter egg workshop. Don’t go to that if you want to learn the art. Do go if you have a family and want to have some entertainment. There were over 150 people and one teacher. They had cameras and bright lights to film and they couldn’t care less if you were trying to see and hear the teacher. It was a circus. No one except the teacher spoke English. They were all yelling and visiting with no regard for the class. This year I didn’t repeat. But I had joined and my friend wanted to see the photo exhibit. Don’t join!!! For $50 don’t get in free like every other museum in Chicago. You get $2 off and 10 percent off in the gift shop. Gift Shop?? You call that a gift shop? The photo exhibit we went to see was nice. They had installed lighting so you could see each photo, but neglected to plug it in. One photo was behind a huge speaker. I asked if there was a booklet about the exhibit- that is still coming. Not! The junior historian, who was older than me and I’m a senior, cornered us. We heard how wonderful Poland was and how terrible the USA is and Germany for selling out the Ukraine. Well- go live in...