Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa

What it is

The institute is two things at once: a working research center that studies ancient civilizations across the Near East, and a public museum in its campus building in Hyde Park. The galleries display a large collection of artifacts and archaeological finds from that part of the world, including Egypt.

Its collection is narrow by design, concentrating on the Near East, southwest Asia and Egypt, and it is highly regarded. An anthropologist at Chicago's Field Museum has ranked it among the finest of its kind anywhere. For visitors, that focus means depth: rather than a little of everything, the rooms go deep on one region of the ancient world.

A bit of history

The institute was established in May 1919 by James Henry Breasted, an Egyptologist who taught at the university, with money given by John D. Rockefeller Jr. For decades it was called the Oriental Institute before taking its current, longer name. Its research reaches far beyond Chicago: it runs a facility called Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt, and continues to study sites across the region.

Visiting tips

Allow one to two hours for the galleries. Parking and restrooms are on site, the building is listed as wheelchair accessible, and it welcomes families with children.

The museum is roughly 5 miles from the Route 66 corridor, so it works best as part of a Hyde Park museum morning before heading west. The Renaissance Society is about 0.2 miles away, the Smart Museum of Art about 0.3 miles, and the DuSable Museum of African American History about 0.5 miles.