My Aventures With Ernest Hemingway: The Ernest Hemingway Foundation Museum

Hello! Following this blog post will be one for Hemingway's childhood home, so be sure to check it out!

I learned of the Hemingway Museum via http://www.ehfop.org/. There are so many websites, so much information about Ernest Hemingway, so when I happened upon this site and saw the museum, I knew I had to go. Getting the chance to do that was amazing.

The museum is located on Oak Park Ave. The link above gives some great information about the foundation, the museum, and Hemingway's birthplace. I encourage you to check it out.

On to our photo tour!

The front of the entry of the museum, facing Oak Park Ave.

Banners close up. That's me, always pointing out the obvious!


Sign outside the museum


Hotel across the street, The Write Inn

I didn't stay at the hotel; I didn't even know it was there. Had I known, I would have. I was in Chicago the day before, and stayed at a hotel by the airport because I knew I'd be coming here the next morning. Maybe next time, if I ever make it back.

There's a bistro attached to it, and at 10 a.m., it was crowded. The hotel was charming, by the looks of the foyer anyhow. It had an old-school, elegant feel to it.

Depending on what books and biographies you read about Hemingway, you might come across various bits of info that seem... contradictory. A few things we know to be true: he was born in Oak Park, was a journalist for the Kansas City Star, and served during WWI as an ambulance driver for the Italian Army. He was injured and while recuperating, fell in love with a nurse. There are other fun facts we will explore as this blog grows, but the following are artifacts from his time during WWI, and other wars he covered beyond that, both in journalism and in fiction writing.

I arrived at the museum early. I was actually in town by about eight that morning. I thought the museum opened at eight, and well, I was wrong. After looking so many times at the museum website, I really didn't see it was ten! I grabbed a coffee and milled around town for a bit then right at ten, I headed over to the museum.

They let me in, but because they had just opened, I had to wait a few minutes in the lobby. A young man behind the greeting desk indicated he was an aspiring writer. How lucky for him to volunteer (I assume) at the museum! What a great place to gather your muse, fuel your fire; that is, if you are a Hemingway fan.

I purchased my ticket from Conni, in the gift shop. It was small and cramped with books and Hemingway fare galore, but it was cozy. She was very friendly and seemed to be one person if I ever meet anyone else, who seemed to know just about everything about Hemingway. You could tell she loved her job, loved the museum, loved what they are trying to preserve about Hemingway and his time spent in Oak Park.