Midway Village Museum

Midway Village collects, preserves and interprets the history of the rockford region and is committed to educating and enriching our community by providing state of the art exhibits, programs, and events. Set on a picturesque, 137-acre campus, Midway Village is home to over 100,000 artifacts dating back to the 1830s; when rockford was founded. The Village hosts many history themed programs and events for all ages covering time periods from early pioneer settlement through world war ii. Our staff pride themselves in providing quality history programs that are interactive and hands-on whenever possible to interpret the rich history of rockford and the northern Illinois region.

Civil war hands on history program is an award-winning educational event specially designed to meet the curriculum standards for students in grades 5th through 8th. Midway Village museums campus makes this an exceptional field trip destination with more than 25 historic buildings and from 40 to 50 different living history sites offered each day. The program is open to private or home schools from northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Students can meet famous people like president & mrs. lincoln, frederick douglass, clara barton, general u. s. grant and many others, experience being a soldier, including marching and drilling, operate civil war era artillery, visit the 1850s barn to learn about the underground railroad, take school lessons in a one room schoolhouse, learn about the art of blacksmithing, and experience many other lifestyles and careers during that era.

One of the largest educational program events is world war ii days which includes elaborate and realistic battles complete with tanks, artillery, armored vehicles, and exciting pyrotechnic displays. This event is the largest world war ii era re-enactment in the united states with over 1,000 uniformed re-enactors from 40 states representing soldiers from the united states, great britain, france, poland, ukraine, russia, japan, italy and germany along with 70 to 80 vintage tanks, halftracks and other 1940s era military vehicles. Visitors experience, elaborate 1940s displays in historical buildings on the Museum property acting as the back drop of a european Village during world war ii, encampments of allied and axis troops in the Midway Village woods and realistic skirmishes integrated in the historic Village, pacific theater battles in the woods with soldiers dressed as u.s. marines and japanese infantry, german cavalry scenes, and soldiers base camps filled with period vehicles, tents and artifacts.