Lincoln Honor Roll Society

Ensure the future of Chicago history through the Lincoln Honor Roll Society

The Lincoln Honor Roll Society was established to recognize those special individuals and families who have chosen to support the Chicago History Museum’s mission and to provide a foundation for this work to continue for generations to come. Planned gifts to endow the activities, programs, collections, exhibitions, and professional positions of the Museum are a vital part of the resources the institution needs. Earnings from the funds currently endowed are utilized every year to ensure that the Museum does the best work possible in its service to the community.

Members of the Lincoln Honor Roll Society are inscribed into a special ledger book that lists this type of gift going back to the nineteenth century—when President Abraham Lincoln was an honorary member of the then Chicago Historical Society. Other names inscribed include Henry D. Gilpin, whose gift made in 1860 helped the institution rebound after the devastating 1871 Great Chicago Fire, when all of the collections and the Society’s building were burned to the ground.

Thankfully, no other such tragedies have befallen the Chicago History Museum, but gifts to the Lincoln Honor Roll Society work not just to help recover from catastrophe, but to move the institution forward.

Your Planned Gift Matters

The work of the Museum impacts hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to learn about our great American city each year, the researchers who utilize the Collection, the 60,000 students who visit the Museum on field trips or who work on their History Fair projects, and the thousands more who access the Museum’s resources through digital means. Legacy gifts are invaluable to the Museum in order to grow, remain viable, and address the changing needs of the community it serves. Gifts from our most committed supporters will continue this work well into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Contact Us

For more details on the Lincoln Honor Roll Society or a confidential conversation regarding how a plan might meet your objectives, contact Michael Anderson, Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement, at 312-799-2142, manderson@chicagohistory.org or write to:

Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement
Office of Institutional Advancement
Chicago History Museum
1601 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614