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Feb. 11--After 150 years, officials on Friday decided the name Chicago Historical Society wasn't good enough anymore and rechristened the city's oldest cultural institution.
The building at North Avenue and Clark Street that houses 22 million city artifacts now will be known as the Chicago History Museum.
The shift in wording might seem slight. But museum officials had been anxious to dump the word "society" because it left people with the impression it was a private club--a place where scholars and history buffs gathered for lectures.
"The old name isn't the right name," said Gary Johnson, a lawyer who in July became the first non-professional historian named president of the society since it was formed in 1856.
"More than one person called to congratulate me when I took the job as president of the society," he said, "then asked me how often the society met. They didn't know that it was a museum."
John Rowe, the Exelon Corp. CEO who last February was named the society's chairman of the board, recalled how a driver once dropped him off in front of the museum a few weeks after his appointment.
"He said he had heard there were a lot of interesting things to see in the museum, and he asked if it welcomed the general public," Rowe said.
Indeed, the museum in recent years had seen attendance drop. Though confusion over the name may have contributed, Rowe and Johnson said the more serious deficiency probably was that the museum hadn't changed its major exhibits in decades.
The two men announced the name change in a ceremony held amid the dust and din of workers who for months have been gutting the building as part of a $27.5 million makeover. Virtually closed to the public except for its research center, the museum will reopen Sept. 30 to launch a planned 15-month observance of its 150th year.
The staff came up with a redesigned museum, with most galleries completely reconfigured to tell thematic stories that focus on the city changing and growing in response to crises and world events.
wmullen@tribune.com
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