Time Machine Bronzeville

Time Machine Bronzeville is an interactive exploration of the Bronzeville neighborhood around East 47th St. and South Parkway Blvd. on Chicago’s South Side, as it was between the World Wars. You explore 3D recreations of the vanished community, encounter its people and places, and uncover stories set against the Great Depression, Jim Crow segregation, the Chicago Renaissance, and the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to cities in the North and West.

Explore the diorama

In the gallery, a large tabletop diorama presents a recreated Bronzeville cityscape animated with people and activity. You can stroll around it, examine actual and imagined locations, and use the Spyglass to look more closely. Dozens of locations open Popup Panels with text, archival photos and audio recreations about each place and its significance. At street level, you encounter characters and sounds from the community.

You can also see the neighborhood from different vantage points: ride a Bi-plane with an undulating “Carnival Today!” banner for a bird’s-eye view, take a night ride through the streets in a Jitney Cab, or view the city from the L- Train.

Discover the stories

The gallery walls display dozens of black-and-white photographs and framed color scenes that lead into the Storyworld. Click on the photographs or enter the scenes to see and hear stories that helped shape 20th-century America.

The Achievement Dashboard tracks what you have discovered and offers hints about what remains to explore. Collect all the Markers on the diorama and in the Gallery Storyworld to become the official Mayor of Bronzeville.