We’ve been to all the big museums in Chicago many times and always enjoy our visits.  Today, however, we decided to venture out to two of the lesser known museums on the north side of Chicago.  We took in the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) and the Swedish American Museum and were impressed with each of them.

The NVAM, located at 4041 North Milwaukee Ave., collects, preserves and exhibits art inspired by combat and created by veterans.  The current exhibits are focused on the Vietnam war, but the museum’s collections include works by veterans from many conflicts.

We happened to visit on a day when they were filming a documentary about the museum and were fortunate to meet Maurice Costello, one of the artists whose work is featured in the film.  Maurice’s Autobiography, a series of four larger than life self-portraits, lines the entryway into the museum and offers an insightful view into his feelings about the war.  Maurice was a nice guy and even let Theresa take a picture with him and one of his portraits.

The museum has one permanent exhibit, The Things They Carried.  It is inspired by Tim O’Brien’s book of the same name and uses letters, photographs, artwork and artifacts to tell stories of the war.  Walking through the exhibit, we saw a recreation of a tented shelter that made us feel for the soldiers that lived and worked in similar conditions.  We read letters of hope from soldiers who only had weeks left to serve and were reassuring loved ones that they would make it home.  One particularly moving letter contained a photo of three pilots, arms linked together, that were heading home soon.  They were the only survivors of their original group of eight pilots.

The center of the exhibit features a hands-on collection of war artifacts that help tell the stories of the soldiers.  We lifted an eighty-pound backpack that was festooned with five canteens (water was critical to a soldier on the move in the heat of Vietnam), saw a landmine detector and numerous hats, helmets and discarded shell casings.  As we were viewing these things, we met Brendan Foster, the Executive Director of the museum.  Brendan was nice enough to spend some time telling us about the museum and its exhibits and even pointed out a few of his favorites.  If Brendan is around when you visit it is worth taking the time to meet him.

The second exhibit we saw was, VIETNAM – The Defining Moment.  In this exhibit, artists capture their personal “defining moment” – the specific moment in Vietnam that transformed and shaped the rest of their lives.  We saw a photograph of a behind the lines recon team as they prepared for a mission and one of an encampment proudly flying the flag of Chicago.  We also saw original artwork, much of it dark, capturing the inner feelings of soldiers as they tried to survive another day.

Sadly, we had to miss a couple smaller sections of the museum because of the filming, but we will catch them next time.  As we left, we were struck by how emotionally moving the experience was.  Maybe it’s because we are children of military fathers who have passed away or maybe it’s the deeply personal works of art in the museum.  Either way, it was a great experience and we highly recommend it for everyone.

Our second stop on the tour was the Swedish American Museum.  The museum, located in Andersonville, is a combination art gallery, history museum and children’s museum.  It also has it own free parking lot on the corner of Ashland and Foster, a rare treat in Chicago.

Once we made it past the friendly, and very talkative, receptionist at the entrance, we headed to the first-floor art gallery.  There we enjoyed the work of Swedish artist Hans Ohman.  The collection, Inspired: Contemporary Swedish folk paintings and Haiku paintings, is a combination of two different styles of art.  The first is more decorative and is based on traditional Swedish ways of painting furniture and walls.  The second is more philosophical and is inspired by Japanese haiku poetry.  We couldn’t really tell the difference between the styles, but Ohman is a talented artist and his works were interesting.  All of the works are for sale, but be warned that they are a little pricey.

The second floor of the museum houses its main exhibit, The Dream of America: Swedish Immigration to Chicago.  This expansive exhibit chronicles the Swedish immigrant experience from leaving Sweden to establishing new lives in Chicago.  The collection includes artifacts and mementos that reflect the lives and experiences of immigrants.

We saw Swedish woodworking tools, a giant family bible and some of the most uncomfortable looking chairs imaginable.  Maybe they were designed to keep Swedes on their feet and working?  There is also an Immigrant Wall of Honor that contains plaques honoring some of the immigrants.  We knew that Tom’s great grandparents had immigrated from Sweden to the Chicago area, but we were still surprised to find the family name on the wall.  To our further surprise, we stumbled across a portrait of a woman with the same family name that looked amazingly like Tom’s great uncle.  The second floor also contains a small library and genealogy center where you can work to trace your Swedish ancestors.

Our final two stops at the museum included a quick peek at the third-floor children’s museum and a visit to the giftshop.  The children’s museum is a quaint recreation of a Swedish village and the kids that were there looked to be having a blast with the hands-on displays and activities.  The giftshop is well stocked with Swedish knickknacks, housewares and treats so there was no way we were leaving empty handed.  With purchases in hand, we left the museum and headed to where the talkative greeter told us we could find an authentic Swedish meal – Svea.