Open on select weekend days and during certain IRM event days, the Chicago & North Western Historical Society Archives Building is operated by and home to the Chicago & North Western Historical Society (C&NWHS). It is located on IRM’s historic Main Street, just around the curve from the Model Railroad Exhibit. The C&NWHS has a small display room housing museum artifacts, the C&NWHS Wall of Memories, and retail goods. There is no additional entry cost for IRM visitors on days the display room is open to the public.
The Society celebrates and preserves the history of the Chicago & North Western and family roads such as the Chicago Great Western, Minneapolis & St Louis, the Omaha Road, and the Fort Dodge Des Moines & Southern. The C&NW ran through nearly 5,000 towns in the Midwest including Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Omaha, Nebraska; and Rapid City, South Dakota.Â
The C&NWHS Archives Collection, which is housed in the remainder of the building, covers the history of an entire railroad. The Archives Collection primarily consists of an estimated 10 million pieces of paper from drawings and maps to day-to-day correspondence, some as old as the 1860s. Approximately 500,000 photos can be found in the Archive Collection. The Society is also home to the Bill & Judy Wimmer Timetable Collection covering railroads spanning the entire United States.
The Chicago & North Western Historical Society Archives is open to researchers by appointment only. Contact the C&NWHS Archives here.
Learn more about the Chicago & North Western Historical Society here.