The Obama Presidential Center is slated to open in Chicago in spring 2026.
The 19 acres in Jackson Park will be complete with a world-class museum. NBC Chicago received an exclusive first look at materials that will be featured in the museum, including the very first artifact in the entire collection.
Chicago's South Side was chosen as the site of the presidential center because it holds meaning to both Barack Obama, who became a community organizer in Chicago in his 20s, and Michelle Obama, who grew up in a two-story house in Chicago’s South Shore community.
"We understand that these were just everyday, ordinary people, and they made a series of choices because they lived in a circumstance, the context that made those choices possible," said Dr. Crystal Moten, the curator of collections and exhibitions at the Obama Presidential Center Museum.
Moten, the museum's lead curator, said thousands of artifacts have been collected - so far - and the collection continues to grow, thanks to donors, including some from Chicagoland. The starting point of the collection is the September 1984 issue of Community Jobs, a newspaper that advertised community organizing jobs around the country. A young Barack Obama read the issue, applied for a position in Chicago with the Calumet Community Religious Conference, and that launched his career.
"This artifact is so significant because it allows us to ground President Obama's story in Chicago," Moten explained. "This is where President Obama got his start by looking at this job advertisement and understanding that it would help him fulfill a part of his purpose, which was to give back and to have a life of service."
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The job requirements were as follows: experienced, church-based organizer or person accomplished in leadership and church development, highly disciplined, confident, mature, reflective, able to think and act strategically.
The newspaper was donated to the museum by its editor, who had saved it, recognizing its significance. It will remind museum visitors of the days before online job postings, when job seekers read the classified ads.
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"People mostly think that President Obama's story is a story of 100% success from start to finish. What we see here is that there was a moment in his life where he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do, and that he had to test and try," Moten said. "They gave him a chance, and that's what this represents."
The museum will feature a number of other artifacts that represent Barack and Michelle Obamas' personal and professional stories, including five wooden matryoshka dolls, also called nesting dolls, of the first family. They were donated by Kathryn "Katy" Annerino from Oak Lawn.
The Obama nesting dolls are wearing the same outfits the Obamas were wearing on election night in Grant Park in 2008, a rally that Annerino herself attended. Before Annerino donated the dolls to the museum, they were a Christmas gift from her daughter.
"I just thought it was great that (the dolls) were made to such likeness, and that I was able to be there and see them wearing those clothes, and the memory of all the flags in Grand Park," Annerino told NBC Chicago.
Annerino became a superfan after her son met Barack Obama when he was collecting signatures for one of his first campaigns. She has a large collection of Obama-related items from as far away as Ethiopia and Hawaii, given to her by friends and family members.
In 2019, the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago held a Community Collecting event, where Annerino donated the nesting dolls.
"I went in with just one thing in my hand, and they really liked these (nesting dolls). When I was speaking to the person collecting, I said, 'I have a huge shopping bag in my car. You can have anything,'" Annerino said.
In total, she donated three photographs and 22 artifacts, including stickers; a commemorative puzzle; a magnetic, dress-up Obama; paper dolls; a t-shirt; a commemorative license plate and a prayer candle.
"The older you get, you think you're not always going to be here. I like to think that those will be there in the museum forever. I really have never had a prouder moment in my life," Annerino said.
Museum officials showed NBC Chicago artifacts that came from other Illinois donors.
An Obama for America correspondence team t-shirt was created by a volunteer who worked in the Chicago headquarters of Obama's campaign office. Volunteers were responsible for sending emails, making calls, and getting voters and volunteers interested in the Obama campaign.
"This is so special because … we think about the grassroots nature of the Obama campaign," Moten said. "The small contributions of one person, one voter, one volunteer, one staffer, is what made this presidency possible."
The museum will also feature historical documents. A Springfield researcher donated an Illinois election ballot from 1876, which features John W.E. Thomas, the first African-American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly. Thomas' district covered Obama's district.
"What were the historical precedents that paved the way for the first Black president? What made it possible? We have to look the history, and this is an example of a historical precedent that made President Obama's presidency possible," Moten said.
The museum building, the design of which is inspired by the idea of four hands coming together, will have eight floors total, with four levels of interactive exhibits. The Lower level will have a café, retail shop and gathering space.
The second level will feature the history that made Obama's presidency possible, the personal and professional stories of the Obamas and the history of the grassroots presidential campaign. The third level will feature the history of the two terms of the Obama presidency, organized not in chronological order but thematically, focusing on issues like health care, the economy, education, immigration, wars and the military.
The fourth level will explore the idea of making the White House the "People's House," with a more inclusive set of visitors than ever before. Level Five will focus on the social movements that continued after Obama’s term; concluding reflective, interactive exhibits and takeaways that ask visitors to consider one small act that they might commit to.
The sixth and seventh floors are for operations and do not have exhibits. The Sky Room, which is on the top level, will offer visitors a space to reflect, with views of Lake Michigan, skyscrapers downtown Chicago and the city's South Side.
The Barack Obama Foundation is still asking for objects, documents and images that defined the Obama presidency. The materials don't have to be one-of-a-kind or of high monetary value to be historically significant, according to the museum's website.
