The Made-in-Chicago Museum, est. 2015, is a thoroughly unsolicited and independent historical research project focused on collecting, documenting, and celebrating the “everyday objects” produced during Chicago’s 20th century industrial heyday. What started out as a small collection of rusty metal knick-knacks in Andrew Clayman’s Uptown apartment has since evolved into this online museum (featuring exclusive histories of hundreds of Chicago manufacturers) as well as a proper physical showcase, with exhibitions at the Edgewater Historical Society (2017-2018), Rogers Park / West Ridge Historical Society (2018-2020), and the Klairmont Kollections auto museum (2022-present). The project has also been featured on WBBM News Radio, WGN’s “SEE Chicago” program, and WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” and “Chicago Stories.”

There are over 400 industrial antiques and vintage wares on display here so far—all of them dating from 1900 to 1970, and all of them, of course, Made in Chicago.

​From old advertising tins to tools, toy trains, telephones, and typewriters, each product included in the Made-In-Chicago Museum provides a rabbit hole to its own unique little origin story—complete with the innovators, immigrants, entrepreneurs, and working stiffs who delivered it to the world. Start weaving the various company histories together and you gradually get a better sense of the city of Chicago itself, and how it became one of the manufacturing capitals of the world.

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