Exhibitions
The Illinois State Museum's extensive collections can be seen in both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Permanent exhibitions are always available, while temporary exhibitions rotate every few months.
Listen to the stories of real people who lived in Illinois. Immerse yourself in the dramatic changes in household life over the past 300 years.
At Changes visitors will see, hear, and touch Illinois’ natural history through engaging hands-on interactive displays, audio and video effects, thousands of authentic fossils, and more. Marvel at all the strange and intriguing species that once inhabited Illinois through a multitude of life-size dioramas.
Life-sized dioramas and finely crafted artifacts bring to life Illinois' rich Native American heritage.
A Retrospective by Thomas Skomski
Illinois State Museum Second Floor Gallery
This exhibition presents a 50-year survey celebrating the career of Thomas Skomski, one of Illinois’s finest sculptors.
This exhibition playfully combines music-inspired art and specimens from the Museum's geology collections.
Second Floor Temporary-Permanent Gallery
This exhibition of over 40 years of painting and drawing by Chicago artist Eleanor Spiess-Ferris traces the development of her distinctive figures across her career and compares studies and sketches with final works.