Exhibits

Building Naperville: Tallgrass Prairie to Today

 Included in museum admission  | Lower-level of the Pre-Emption House Visitors Center

Building Naperville: Tallgrass Prairie to Today takes a fresh look at Naperville’s storied past with an update on the lower level permanent exhibit space. Building Naperville touches on various themes including people and places and engages the visitor with stories, artifacts, and questions which have the power to educate and inspire. Sections of the exhibit that were updated include adding Prairie Band Potawatomi voices, a spotlight on the Naperville Lyceum, a new focus on transportation changes, and the City’s story of suburbanization.

Inspiring Curiosity

January 26- April 7, 2023 |  Pre-Emption House | Included in Museum Admission
Naper Settlement in collaboration with the Naperville Art League will host an exhibition featuring the works of league members. This year’s Naperville Art League exhibit at Naper Settlement is inspired by the theme of curiosity. Open to anyone interested in art, the Naperville Art League was founded in 1961 by artists who provided classes to members in their homes. With a focus on art education and increasing appreciation for the arts, they have grown to over 250 members, and host exhibits and classes for students from preschoolers through seniors at their Fine Art Center & Gallery. 

4EVER4

January 9-27, 2023 | Included in General Admission | Lower Level Pre-Emption House

Republic Bank of Chicago is pleased to present 4EVER4, a photo exhibition celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Beatles. The exhibit has nearly 100 photographs of the Beatles in concert, their antics off stage, record albums, their movies, concert posters, ticket stubs, contracts, touring schedules, and other historical photos.

Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination in the Northern and Western United States

Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination in the Northern and Western United States is a free online exhibit examining the history of residential segregation in America by spotlighting six communities from California to Connecticut and placing their histories within a national context. Supported through an Institute of Museum and Library Services Museum Leadership Grant and the Healing Illinois Grant Program, a consortium of six history museums and cultural organizations from across the country collaborated from 2017 to 2022 to research and present their community’s history of exclusion. Online visitors will learn how housing discrimination often based on race, ethnicity, or religion was a large-scale system that resulted in segregation patterns across the Northern and Western United States that intensified over the twentieth century. Nearly two dozen interactive articles, accompanied by in-depth explainer videos, photos, interviews, and other primary sources, showcase how formal systems of segregation were developed through individual practices and expanded through federal policy, sustained over time, and continue to affect today’s communities.  To view the online exhibit, please visit UnvarnishedHistory.org. 

We also invite you to visit Naper Settlement’s onsite companion exhibit that examines Naperville’s Unvarnished history through October 28, 2022, in the Museum Visitor Center.  This exhibit is included in museum admission.