Driehaus Museum
The Driehaus Museum fills a restored 1883 banker's mansion on East Erie Street in Chicago, IL, with the decorative arts of the Gilded Age and the Art Nouveau era. It sits near the Magnificent Mile, about 1 mile off the old road. For travelers about to drive a highway born in the 1920s, it offers a look at how wealthy Americans lived a generation or two earlier.
What is Driehaus Museum?
The museum fills the rooms of the Samuel M. Nickerson House. It does not try to recreate the Nickerson family's own years in the house. Instead, its permanent and changing exhibitions explore the wider design, architecture and home decorating tastes of the Gilded Age and the Art Nouveau period in America and Europe.
The building is part of the display. Expect walls and fireplaces of marble and onyx, woodwork carved from both local and imported timber, glazed tile and colored glass windows. Furniture that belonged to the Nickersons shares the rooms with decorative pieces made on both sides of the Atlantic between roughly the 1880s and the 1910s, among them Art Nouveau furniture and several pieces by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the famous glass designer.
History of Driehaus Museum
The museum is named for its founder, Richard H. Driehaus, a Chicago businessman and philanthropist who collected art. He bought the mansion in 2003, and the works on view come from his private collection of fine art and decorative objects. The house itself dates from 1883, when it was built for banker Samuel Nickerson, so the setting and the collection belong to the same era.
Visiting Driehaus Museum: tips
The museum is listed as wheelchair accessible. Allow about an hour to take in the rooms slowly; the detail rewards a close look. The Chicago Water Tower and the Loyola University Museum of Art are each about 0.2 mile away, so all three fit into one easy walk. Food and lodging are within about 0.1 mile.
Practical info
- Address
- 50 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL 60611
- Phone
- +1 312-482-8933
- Website
- driehausmuseum.org
- Hours
- Wed 11–7 · Thu–Sun 11–5
- On site & nearby
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Where to eat near Driehaus Museum
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Questions about Driehaus Museum
What can you see at the Driehaus Museum?
Restored Gilded Age interiors with marble, onyx, carved wood and stained glass, plus decorative arts that include Art Nouveau furniture and works by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Is the Driehaus Museum the same as Nickerson House?
The museum is housed inside Nickerson House, an 1883 mansion. The house is the building; the museum is what operates in it.
Own or run Driehaus Museum? Send us a photo or a correction.