The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

and a

research library A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of to ...

for the study of

military history Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationships. ...

on Michigan Avenue in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The institution was founded in 2003, and its specialist collections include material relating to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

and war-related

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, ...

History

The institution was founded in 2003 as the Pritzker Military Library to be a

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...

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)

Pritzker The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of '' Forbes'' magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since th ...

, who had just retired from the

Illinois Army National Guard The Illinois Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. With the Illinois Air National Guard it forms the Illinois National Guard. National coordination of various state National Guard uni ...

. Originally located in the Streeterville neighborhood at 610 N. Fairbanks Court, the library later moved to 104 S. Michigan Avenue in the Loop. The museum & library is a non-profit, supported by donations and membership. In early 2019, Rob Havers was appointed president and CEO of the museum. In 2022, he was succeeded by Krewasky A. Salter.

Collections

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 Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

, over 9000 photographs and glass negatives from the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

and the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

to the present, letters and journals from American soldiers, and a sizable collection related to

. Sam Gevirtz, who served on board during the Okinawa invasion, donated his two World War II diaries to the Museum & Library. The collection is open to the public, but membership is required to borrow circulating materials. 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). 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. The institution maintains named collections, which include the Parrish Collection on Soviet History, the Dr. Charles E. Metz Collection (titles on

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

aviation), James Wengert Military Medical Collection, Lt. Col. Robert C. Peithman Collection (titles on the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through c ...

), Henry J. Reilly Memorial Library (volumes collected by Brig. Gen. Reilly), 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 A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

and leadership), Dr. Charles C. Moskos Collection (books on military sociology, LGBTQ and the military, women and the military), Norman E. Harms Collection (books and papers on aviation, tanks, and ships),

Robin D. S. Higham Robin David Stewart Higham (June 20, 1925 – August 27, 2015) was a British-American historian, specializing in aerospace and military history, who also served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Early life and fa ...

Collection (books on aviation, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II unit histories), and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

Sheet Music and Song Books Collection.

Programs

The Museum & Library has produced and maintains multiple programs related to military history in the United States.

''Pritzker Military Presents''

''Pritzker Military Presents'' is a televised series covering various topics in military history, and features film screenings, author presentations, and panel discussions with military officers and specialists in military history. They have included interviews with

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of val ...

recipients such as Paul William Bucha and

Gary L. Littrell Gary Lee Littrell (born October 26, 1944) is a retired United States Army command sergeant major who, while serving as an adviser to Army of the Republic of Vietnam's Ranger units during the Vietnam War, acted with extraordinary courage during a ...

, retired military figures such as Gen.

Anthony Zinni Anthony Charles Zinni (born September 17, 1943) is a former United States Marine Corps general and a former Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). From 2001 to 2003, he served as a special envoy for the United States t ...

and NASA Capt.

Jim Lovell James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of th ...

, as well as military authors such as

Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ...

Rick Atkinson Lawrence Rush "Rick" Atkinson IV (born November 15, 1952) is an American author, most recently of ''The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777'', the first volume in the Revolution Trilogy. He has won Pulit ...

, and W.E.B. Griffin. Retired CIA agent Sandra Grimes also paid a visit to the Museum & Library and introduced her book ''Circle of Treason''. Programs are

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

live on the library's website and archived for later viewing or listening in streaming media or as podcasts. This website has over 400 of these programs available as episodes of ''Pritzker Military Presents'', or original programming produced by the Museum & Library. The programs are downloaded at a rate of 2,000 per month per program. They are also broadcast on Chicago PBS affiliate

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). T ...

Channel 11.

''Citizen Soldier''

The Museum & Library also produces ''Citizen Soldier''. Each episode is originally a panel, conversation or interview that takes place at Pritzker Military Museum & Library. It is then edited into a 26-minute episode that is broadcast on Chicago Public TV station, WTTW Channel 11 and WTTW-Prime Channel 11–2. Seasons one and two can be viewed on the Museum & Library's website. the show is in its third season.

Other programs

The Holt Oral History Program has collected stories from 71 US military veterans and posted a downloadable podcast. The full audio interviews and transcriptions are available on the Museum & Library's website. Kenneth Clarke, president and CEO of the library at the time, said one of the Library's goals is to provide a secure space for veterans to explore their experiences in war. The Museum & Library also serves as a community resource, hosting commissioning and citizenship ceremonies.

Exhibitions

The Museum & Library has also hosted exhibitions by artists such as Steve Mumford, James Dietz, Don Stivers, and members of the Midwest Air Force Association. Other exhibitions have included Don't Be a Dope!: Training Comics from World War II and Korea and She's a Wow!: Women's Service Organizations in World War II. In May 2014, the Pritzker exhibited photography from Stephanie Freid-Perenchio: her work depicted

Navy SEALs The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sm ...

in training and during their service in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

; the exhibit also included independently loaned artifacts from the Navy SEAL Museum such as uniforms and equipment. In June 2019, the Museum & Library opened the ''D-Day+75'' exhibition, to mark the 75th anniversary of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. The exhibit featured images, letters and maps from the invasion in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

in addition to video and audio recording from D-Day veterans.

Awards program

In 2007, the Museum & Library awarded its first annual Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing to Civil War historian

James M. McPherson James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for '' Battle Cry ...

. The award includes a $100,000 honorarium. It is given in the Museum & Library's name by the Tawani Foundation.

Honorees

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Critical reception

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 The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent agency of the United States federal government established in 1996. It is the main source of federal support for libraries and museums within the United States, having the ...

(IMLS) since 1994, recognizes institutions for outstanding social, educational, environmental, or economic contributions to their communities. The Museum & Library's 2006 schedule was named an Official Honoree of the 2007

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

. It was also named an Official Honoree in two categories, Live & Broadcast Events and Podcasts, in the 2008 Webby Awards.

Publications

The museum publishes books, including: * *

References

External links

*
''Front & Center''
''with'' '' John Callaway'' archive at the Pritzker Military Museum & Librar
pdf
* John Callawaybr>discusses ''The Politics of War''
with Bruce DuMont at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library
Organizational Profile
–

National Center for Charitable Statistics The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is a clearing house for information about the nonprofit sector of the U.S. economy. The National Center for Charitable Statistics builds national, state, and regional databases and develops sta ...

(

Urban Institute The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations and pr ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pritzker Military Museum and Library Libraries in Chicago Military historiography Museums in Chicago

Art museums and galleries in Illinois Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria an ...

Military and war museums in Illinois Libraries established in 2003 2003 establishments in Illinois Research libraries in the United States