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Astronomy.
Architecture.
Arboretum.
Art.
Unlike anywhere else...
in the entire cosmos.
Yerkes Observatory’s staff and trustees have dedicated the past three years to conscientiously restoring the landmark institution and fifty acre campus. We are conducting astronomical research and educational outreach in addition to building and hosting a series of programs bridging science with the arts and culture through bold ideas and performances.
In our second year open to the public, we have established a space where astrophysicists are collaborating with musicians, sculptors, landscape designers, writers, and artists across the spectrum to create contemporary, cross-pollinated works and programs. With astronomy at our core, Yerkes Observatory’s reawakening as an incubator of diverse minds makes us wildly enthusiastic during this recrudescence at the confluence of astronomy, architecture, arboretum, and art.
Mapping the unfolding universe for 126 years.
Yerkes Observatory. See for Yourself.
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What will the stars reveal to you?
Ancient navigators charted their course by them. Romantics pledge their love underneath them. Scientists unravel new secrets about them. Northwoods campers marvel at the sheer number of them. The stars have forever mystified, fascinated, and inspired us. For 125 years and counting, Yerkes Observatory has helped shape our understanding of the universe. And it is once again open for you to explore.
The story of Yerkes Observatory began on a household rooftop in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago in 1882. George Ellery Hale, a 14-year-old boy with an insatiable curiosity about science, installed his first telescope there. A decade later Hale and his father constructed a proper observatory with a 12-inch telescope next to their home. Hale’s ideas about astronomy, observatories, and architecture would culminate in the creation of Yerkes Observatory housing the world's largest refracting telescope and the 12-inch refractor from Hale’s youth.
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Yerkes Observatory Staff, 1898
Yerkes’ latest chapter is as a beacon illuminating a path for current and future generations of scientists and artists to discover and interpret the universe. Plan a visit and prepare to be amazed like the astronomers and visitors of the past 125 years.
Stroll the lush grounds designed by the Olmsteds who created Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds, and so much more. Take a tour through the Beaux Arts and Romanesque architectural masterpiece. Follow in the footsteps of astronomical greats like Edwin Hubble, Nancy Grace Roman, Gerard Kuiper, Mary Calvert, E.E. Barnard, Richard Kron, and Carl Sagan. Size up the Great Refractor telescope—all 63 feet and 20 tons of it—so delicately balanced that it can be moved by hand.
Yerkes Observatory Staff, 1898