Guided Tours

With the opening of the Driehaus Museum’s inaugural exhibition, our daily tour schedule will change on September 28, 2013. For more details, please visit our Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection site.

Highlights of the Museum Tour

Visitors are invited to participate in an immersive experience of late 19th- and early 20th-century art and design. Expert Museum guides lend insight into the magnificent interiors of the Samuel M. Nickerson Mansion, stunning pieces from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, and the five-year restoration project that returned the building to its original splendor. This introductory tour, ideal for first-time visitors, includes all three floors of the Museum and an opportunity to view the servants’ quarters.

Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.
Sunday, 1:30 p.m. & 3 p.m.

Tour Length: 50 minutes
Cost: $5 with admission

Advance reservations are not required. Please arrive 15 minutes before the tour begins.

Help Wanted: The Summer Servants’ Tour

The Driehaus Museum’s popular living history tour is back!

The year is 1899, and the Nickerson family is away spending the summer season at their Cape Cod estate. Due to a recent mysterious “incident” that resulted in the dismissal of most of the household staff, the fastidious English housekeeper Mrs. Williams is conducting special interviews with prospective candidates in their absence.

As a tour participant, you are one of those prospective candidates. During this unique living history experience, guests explore the mansion’s back staircases and servants’ quarters as they discover the true historic inspiration for the “incident,” what life was like for an American servant in the Gilded Age, and how the Nickerson family’s real servants would have cared for their distinguished employers.

Sunday, 11 a.m.
Monday, 3:30 & 5:30 p.m.
Friday, 5:30 p.m.
(June 23–September 1)

Tour Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $15 Adults, $8 Youth (8–12 years)

The Summer Servants’ Tour sells out quickly! Advance ticket purchase is required. Please call 312 482 8933, ext. 21 or purchase tickets online here.

Mansions and Millionaires: The McCormickville Walking Tour

Spend an afternoon exploring the rich and varied history of Chicago’s River North district, a neighborhood formerly known as McCormickville.

Magnificent mansions once lined the streets surrounding the Driehaus Museum. With intriguing anecdotes, visits to surviving buildings, and exclusive historical photographs, Chicago historian Sally Sexton Kalmbach illuminates the lives of the industrial businessmen, entangled families, notable public figures, and artists that once populated the area.

First and third Saturday of each month, 1 p.m.
(April 6–November 2)

Tour Length: 90 minutes
Cost: $20 McCormickville Walking Tour only; $30 McCormickville Walking Tour with Driehaus Museum general admission

Rain or shine. Comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended. Advance reservations are recommended, but not required. Please call 312 482 8933, ext. 21 or purchase tickets online here. Complimentary bottled water is available; please inquire when you arrive at the Museum 15 minutes before the tour begins.

 

Photo by Alexander Vertikoff.