Museum of Science and Industry

The Museum of Science and Industry, located in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere. Housed in the historic Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, it features over 35,000 artifacts and 400,000 square feet of interactive exhibits. Notable attractions include a World War II German U-505 submarine, a full-size replica coal mine, and a 3,500-square-foot model railroad. The museum offers a variety of educational programs and events for visitors of all ages.

Planning your visit

The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, and it occupies the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition — the only major building from that fair still standing, in Hyde Park by the lake. The scale allows exhibits no ordinary museum could attempt.

U-505 is the centrepiece: a German submarine captured intact in the Atlantic in 1944, brought across and now housed underground in a purpose-built hall where visitors board and move through the interior. Elsewhere there is a full-size replica coal mine descended by lift, a 3,500-square-foot model railroad running Chicago to Seattle, a captured Stuka, a 727 suspended from the ceiling, and the Apollo 8 command module.

Over 35,000 artefacts fill 400,000 square feet, and a day is not excessive.

Some attractions — the U-505 onboard tour, the coal mine, the giant-screen theatre — carry separate charges on top of general admission, and they are the ones worth planning for since capacity is limited.

Bookable options include entry tickets and tickets with audio tours. Deciding in advance which add-on experiences you want avoids finding them sold out on arrival. Current availability is shown below.