April 28th, 2023

We had the great joy to attend the Archives Crawl at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture. One of our core members, the BMLC strives to preserve, perpetuate, and showcase Lithuanian culture and traditions. and celebrates the achievements of the Lithuanian nation and its people worldwide. 

Lithuanian immigrants have settled in Chicago since the latter half of the 19th century. Today, Chicago is home to the largest Lithuania community outside Lithuania and is sister-cities to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture was founded in 1966 during the height of the Cold War when Lithuania was subsumed into the Soviet Union and cut off from the rest of the world. Concerned about the plight of their ancestral land, leaders of Chicago’s Lithuanian community established the Museum to serve as a cultural ‘home away from the homeland’ for Chicago Lithuanians and a gateway to Lithuania, its language, history, culture, and traditions for all Chicagoans. 

Spearheaded by Stanley Balzekas, Jr., and consisted of Balzekas family’s collection of rare books, maps, armor, and art. Other major gifts and purchases followed. In 1986, the Museum purchased and moved to the building it currently occupies, the former Von Solbrig Hospital in Chicago’s West Lawn neighborhood.  Today the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture is the largest Museum in the United States dedicated to Lithuanian culture and history. It is supported by a few thousand active members. In addition, it maintains partnerships with a broad network of ethnic museums and cultural institutions in Chicago, the State of Illinois, and throughout the United States, as well as museums and universities in the Baltic republics and diasporic communities worldwide.