Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
6500 S. Pulaski Rd.
Open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $3 to $9
Fun fact: Chicago is home to more people of Lithuanian descent than any city outside of Lithuania, though there don’t seem to be many of them at this sleepy but impressively vast repository of historical and cultural artifacts, from rare archival photos documenting the country’s wartime occupation to folk art and an early-20th-century tourism brochure.
Brick’s Liquor Lane and Vintage Neon Sign Warehouse
1546 N. Rand Rd., Palatine. Open daily. Free
Tom Brickler has turned his 4,500-square-foot liquor store into an ad hoc museum of vintage neon signs, dozens of which hang from the walls and give a pleasingly lurid feel to the place. Among the highlights: a rare porcelain neon sign for Lucky Lager and another for Pilsen Premium Beer from a now defunct Chicago brewery.
Busy Beaver Button Museum
3407 W. Armitage Ave.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, or by appointment. Free
The world’s only pin-back button museum—what, you thought there might be more than one?—boasts a collection that runs the gamut from the political (“Howard Stern for President”) to the pop cultural (“I Love Herman’s Hermits”) to the straight-up bizarre (“King Kong Died for Our Sins”). Staff members from the adjacent Busy Beaver Button Company serve as docents.
The Prehistoric Life Museum
711 Main St., Evanston
Closed Wednesday and Sunday. Free
Trilobites, crabs, ancient insects preserved in amber, a prehistoric bear skeleton—these are just a few of the fossilized treasures that founders Dave Douglass and his wife, Sandra, have collected over the years. You’ll find more gems—literally—upstairs in Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop.
The Franklin
3522 W. Franklin Blvd.
Noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, or by appointment. Free
Artist Edra Soto’s modular backyard microgallery isn’t much bigger than a garden shed, but it offers what may be the city’s most intimate encounter with cutting-edge local artists—including Soto herself, who occasionally invites visitors to attend short-film screenings in her home.
Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art
220 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst
Tuesday to Sunday. $2 to $5 (free on Friday)
For the uninitiated, “lapidary” refers to the art of cutting and polishing stones and gems, and this suburban museum contains many dazzling examples, including intricate jade carvings, Florentine and Roman mosaics, and a miniature castle made of agate, amethyst, and gold.
McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum
99 Chicago Riverwalk
Thursday to Monday, May through October. $3 to $6
The view from the top of the McCormick Bridgehouse gives a whole new perspective on the river—the subject of this tiny museum’s permanent exhibition—and its skyscraper canyon. On the bottom level, you can see the massive gears used to raise the drawbridge.
The 16-Inch Softball Hall of Fame and Museum
7501 W. Harrison St., Forest Park
Noon to 4 p.m., Saturday. Free
This museum makes a respectable case for 16-inch softball as the sport’s truest form. See vintage uniforms, great photos of the sport’s postwar heyday, and even a Hollywood-style walk of fame.