Higher learning

Spend a day exploring two of Chicago’s lesser-known museums

By Brenna Ehrlich
Photos by Cort Rankin

Whenever the cool weather starts blowing in and the leaves begin to change, I always get the urge to go to a museum.

Maybe it’s the impending “first day of school” feeling that usually grips me this time of year, making me think of class trips and “the buddy system.” Still, what can you do when you’ve been to all the “major” museums in town and you’ve stared at the molting stuffed birds at least 50 times already?

I opted for a more alternative course, setting out to explore two of Chicago’s lesser-known houses of history: The International Museum of Surgical Science and The National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. These spots may be off the beaten track (and somewhat offbeat), but as autumn engulfs us all, they’re intriguing places to come in from the cold.
The International Museum of Surgical Science (1524 N. Lake Shore Dr.), regardless of its sterile moniker, is located in anything but an operating room. An opulent French mansion ensconced on upper-class Lake Shore Drive, the museum was built by famed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1917 for Eleanor Robinson Countiss and her family. In 1950, Dr. Max Thorek and the International College of Surgeons purchased the Parisian paradise, converting it into a museum in 1954. Talk about a facelift.
The museum boasts four floors of surgical history. On the first floor, I suggest visiting the Apothecary, if only for sheer kitsch factor. A talking dummy dwells in the to-scale shop, which is filled with bottles and mysterious powders, none of which were approved by the FDA.

I would also visit the Hall of Immortals on the second floor — a regal room of mirrors filled with marble statues of famous physicians from Imhotep to Marie Curie. The fourth floor proves that art and science can co-exist with the exhibit Anatomy in the Gallery. One artist took the idea of “custom made” to the next level, crafting a gown adorned with photos of her blood vessels. I guess you could say the gown just flows.
Just a warning: Not everything in this museum is interesting. If you have no knowledge of medicine, you’re likely to bypass most of the exhibits, so don’t feel guilty if you lack the urge to read every one of the thousands of information cards. Still, The International Museum of Surgical Science is worth visiting, especially if you’ve ever had a yearning to see an iron lung.
You know those solemn places where you feel as if you shouldn’t speak? Well, The National Vietnam Veteran’s Art Museum (1801 S. Indiana Ave,) in one of those silent spots. The museum was created by veterans in order to depict the experience of the Vietnam War.

After the war, many vets turned to art as a form of catharsis. In 1981, a group of these veterans toured with an exhibit of this artwork and, thanks to Mayor Richard Daley’s support, opened a museum to house the collection.
When you first enter the museum, you’ll see “Above and Beyond,” a 10x40-foot sculpture made up of 58,000 imprinted dog tags suspended from the ceiling. The sculpture was installed on Memorial Day 2001, and it’s the first new permanent Vietnam War memorial to list all those killed in action since The Wall was built in Washington, D.C. The tags jingle and undulate slightly in the otherwise still museum; the sheer number of them struck me dumb.

While you’re there, make sure to take a look at the work of Richard Yohnka, who paints stark and skinless representations of fighting and wounded soldiers. “Plastic Army Men” is particularly striking, featuring a story about how, as a child, Yohnka buried his toys in a mass grave, and dug them up years later to find only plastic bones.

Every information card in the museum features such a tale, rendering the museum both a a visual bombardment and a striking story. None of the art here is the kind that you’d buy for your living room wall, but every picture captures you. I think artist Charlie Shobe put it best on the card next to his painting, “Bamboo Songs,” suggesting “My paintings are of the horror show that was Vietnam; butchery carried out for politicians, bureaucrats, and ambitious generals whose egos would not let them say ‘Enough,’ and for an indifferent public; art to honor those who lived and died there, and earned only a few hundred dollars a month. It would take a lifetime to paint it all.”

Although none of us civilians can truly appreciate what war is like, the Veteran’s Art Museum can give you an inkling, imprinting you with images of 125 soldiers’ experiences.
These are only two of the many intriguing and eclectic museums that Chicago has to offer. There are exhibits in this city dedicated to everything from holograms to peace, so there’s sure to be something to get you out the door.

It’s time to say goodbye to those summer tourist traps, and say hello to fall with a visit to a new museum of your choice.

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