Pritzker Military Museum & Library closing Chicago location, retreats to Wisconsin

CHICAGO - The Pritzker Military Museum & Library announced Wednesday it is closing its downtown location and moving to an archives center in Wisconsin later this year.

The museum’s Monroe Building, at Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue, will shut its doors July 27 when the current exhibit, "War of 1812: Countering Peril on the High Seas and at Home," closes.

Roughly 40,000 artifacts and more than 65,000 book titles from the museum, which is housed on three floors of the 16-story building, will merge with the Pritzker Military Archives Center in Somers, Wisconsin, about 65 miles north of Chicago and 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

"Merging PMML and PMAC will carry our mission into the 21st century by safeguarding historical artifacts and book collections for future generations to see and experience," interim President Robert Bravo said in a statement.

The nearly 52,000-square-foot Wisconsin location will open later this year, when members will get special access to library services, virtual resources and digitized offerings, and researchers can have exclusive access to archival collections, the museum said.

In-person exhibits and programs will be expanded.

Museum officials announced three years ago a project to build a Cold War Veterans Memorial in Somers.

The museum said its continuing mission "is to acquire and maintain an accessible collection of materials and to increase the public’s understanding of military history, military affairs and national security."

Past exhibits at the Monroe Building include one on D-Day that opened on the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II. It told stories of Medal of Honor recipient Walter Ehlers, among five other D-Day veterans, through video and audio recordings.

It also displayed patches worn by various military units — one that never existed — in a deception campaign intended to give the Allies an advantage by masking the true target of the invasion. The deception worked, causing Hitler and his command staff to believe the landing in Normandy was a diversion.

The nonprofit museum and library was founded in 2003 by Jennifer Pritzker, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard and cousin of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. She continues to serve as the Pritzker Military Foundation president and chairs the museum’s board of directors.

She is also president of Tawani Enterprises, a private investment company that took part in a six-year restoration of the Monroe Building that was completed in 2012.