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The main exhibit hall chronicles the history of the U.S. Army's First Division from World War I through Desert Storm. Exhibits are a succession of walk-through dioramas, from a ruined French village (Cantigny, where the Division first saw action), through narrow trenches, and even beneath the treads of a tank crossing overhead. A "transition room,'' focusing on the 1920s and '30s, plays music and features a timeline, photos, maps and other documents to illustrate events leading to World War II. Next comes full-size scenes of the First Division's combat in North Africa. Then the "Landing Craft Theater'' shows a film about the First's landing on Normandy's Omaha Beach, after which the screen rises and leads to another walk-through diorama depicting the beachhead. A Vietnam jungle exhibit commemorates the role of the "Big Red One,'' as it was called, in Southeast Asia. The museum also has a temporary gallery that changes exhibits yearly; the spring 1998 exhibit was "The Dream of Chicago," about events that helped define the city in the last century and a half. A library, archive and research center is housed here for more serious students. Combining the First Division Museum with the splendid Robert R. McCormick Museum at Cantigny nearby makes for a good family outing.

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Wheaton museums, History museums, Military museums