A Colorful Window on Chicago’s Navy Pier

The latest addition to Chicago’s bustling Navy Pier is the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, which claims to be the only U.S. museum devoted solely to that art. It opened Friday with more than 100 windows from the 1870s to the present.

Stained-glass art reached its peak in Gothic architecture and has been revived at various times. Chicago became a world center of revival and invention after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when rebuilding demands drew European-trained artisans to the city. Among major designers represented at the museum are Louis Sullivan, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright (whose geometric windows made a revolutionary break with Victorian tradition, says curator Rolf Achilles).

Museum entrance is free. It keeps the same hours as Navy Pier, which opens at 10 a.m. daily and closes between 7 p.m. and midnight, depending on the season. The museum is among more than 20 attractions, including restaurants, a Ferris wheel, an Imax theater, a children’s museum and, most recently, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, that have been added to the once-disused pier during the last 10 years. Telephone (800) 595-PIER.