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Care to Look

A concrete wall with peeling layers of tan and blue paint. Graffiti in the top left corner says “Abandon Hope.” In the bottom left corner, graffiti that once said “ENTER HERE” is peeling off and obstructed so it only reads “NTER HE.”

Credit: National Public Housing Museum

Exhibition

  • Throughout interior
    and exterior

  • Free

Care to Look

All objects have stories to tell. If you care to look—really look at any object, they reveal important information about the past as it continues into the present. 

Throughout the National Public Housing Museum, you will encounter objects that were salvaged from the original Jane Addams Homes building that now serves as our home. You are invited to consider what these preserved artifacts from the building have to say about the style, culture, and history of public housing.

These objects also serve as a constant reminder that our museum building used to be domestic spaces, homes where people once lived and loved.  The objects invite you to expand the horizon of what we consider worth preserving in society.


More exhibitions

Black and white image of a 1940s Jane Addams Homes kitchen. A mother stands at the counter with her two sons.

Historic Apartments

Experience the texture and fabric of public housing throughout time by visiting three recreated historic apartments showcasing different families’ experiences at different moments in public housing history between 1938 and 1975. The intimate individual, family and community stories become the lens to understand large national public housing policies and their impact…

Two wooden bookends, each with a copper baby shoe inscribed with the name “Daniel,” sit on a wooden table.

History Lessons: Everyday Objects from Public Housing

“What is an object that tells a story about your life and experiences in public housing?” History Lessons: Everyday Objects from Public Housing is a national effort to collect objects from public housing residents in diverse communities across the USA, and work with residents in storytelling and writing workshops to write their own labels…

On a sideways piece of lined notebook paper with old fashioned handwritten text, a pencil drawing of three indigenous women wrapped in blankets look directly at the viewer. At the top of the page is a sliver of a Chicago street map.

Still Here

Still Here uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect histories of displacement on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. As an institution that addresses displacement of public housing residents, we also want to understand the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples that came before and grapple with how those experiences are interwoven…


Exhibition Resources

Additional resources available at the front desk.