Pritzker Military Museum & Library
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its specialist collections include material relating to Winston Churchill and war-related sheet music.
Pritzker Military Museum & Library
104 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
Non-profit
2003
67,000 volumes, plus other material
22
History[edit]
The institution was founded in 2003 as the Pritzker Military Library to be a non-partisan institution for the study of "the citizen soldier as an essential element for the preservation of democracy" by Colonel (Hon.) (IL) Jennifer (at the time, James[2]) Pritzker, who had just retired from the Illinois Army National Guard. Originally located in the Streeterville neighborhood at 610 N. Fairbanks Court, the library later moved to 104 S. Michigan Avenue[3] in the Loop. The museum & library is a non-profit,[4] supported by donations and membership.
In early 2019, Rob Havers was appointed president and CEO of the museum.[5][6] In 2022, he was succeeded by Krewasky A. Salter.[7][8]
Collections[edit]
The collection of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library comprises over 115,000 items and includes more than 70,000 books, as well as periodicals, videos, artwork, posters, rare military ephemera, over 9000 photographs and glass negatives from the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War to the present, letters and journals from American soldiers, and a sizable collection related to Winston Churchill. Sam Gevirtz, who served on board USS Bunker Hill during the Okinawa invasion, donated his two World War II diaries to the Museum & Library.[9]
The collection is open to the public, but membership is required to borrow circulating materials.[10] The Library participates in an interlibrary loan program with major public and university libraries in the continental United States. It is a member of several academic consortia, including the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) and Libraries Very Interested in Sharing (LVIS).[11][12]
The library has a non-circulating collection of more than 3,000 rare books and periodicals, including the Famiano Strada's De Bello Belgico (London: 1650) and John Entick's The General History of the Late War: Containing It's Rise, Progress, and Event, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America (London: 1763). The collection also includes unit histories, such as Civil War regimentals, and cruise books, like those from USS Chicago. These materials must be read in the Rare Book Reading Room.[13]
The institution maintains named collections, which include the Parrish Collection on Soviet History,[14] the Dr. Charles E. Metz Collection (titles on World War II aviation),[15] James Wengert Military Medical Collection, Lt. Col. Robert C. Peithman Collection (titles on the United States Marine Corps), Henry J. Reilly Memorial Library (volumes collected by Brig. Gen. Reilly),[16] the Robert C. Baldridge Collection (volumes collected by Robert Connell Baldridge), Edward Jablonski Collection (books of historian Edward Jablonski), John V. Farwell Collection (books on the American and British navies), Robert G. Burkhardt Memorial Collection (books on submarines and leadership), Dr. Charles C. Moskos Collection (books on military sociology, LGBTQ and the military, women and the military),[17] Norman E. Harms Collection (books and papers on aviation, tanks, and ships),[18] Robin D. S. Higham Collection (books on aviation, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II unit histories),[19] and World War I and World War II Sheet Music and Song Books Collection.
Critical reception[edit]
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library was named one of 10 recipients of the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The annual award, made by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) since 1994, recognizes institutions for outstanding social, educational, environmental, or economic contributions to their communities.[30]
The Museum & Library's 2006 schedule was named an Official Honoree of the 2007 Webby Awards.[62] It was also named an Official Honoree in two categories, Live & Broadcast Events and Podcasts, in the 2008 Webby Awards.[63]
The museum publishes books, including:
