Pritzker Military Museum and Library

The Pritzker Military Museum and Library, founded in Chicago and now based in the Kenosha area of Wisconsin, is dedicated to citizen soldiers, the ordinary Americans who left civilian life to serve in wartime. Founded in two thousand three by Chicago financier Colonel Jennifer Pritzker, a member of the family behind the Hyatt hotel chain, the museum holds a large collection of military history materials, including rare books, personal diaries, letters, and artifacts spanning from the Revolutionary War to recent conflicts. Its mission is deliberately civic rather than trophy-oriented, focusing on the experience of the individual soldier rather than the machinery of war. The museum now sits in a city with a long industrial history as an automaker.