On a recent rainy Friday afternoon, amid an endless sprawl of concrete and construction zones, a handful of curious city dwellers find themselves surrounded by dense moss, curious rocks, thousands of insects, exotic reptiles and a potentially alarming amount of animal bones. 

Where, one might ask, does one find such a collection in the middle of Chicago?

They’ve found The Insect Asylum, a family-run nonprofit museum of preserved and live insects, animals, bones, natural oddities and artwork in the Logan Square neighborhood. 

Nina Salem, who founded the museum in 2018, said the space grew from her personal collection. She said she has since amassed close to 20,000 species on display — plants, animals, flora and fauna, available for viewing. 

“Guests know that there’s a second home here where they can listen to the birds sing, hear the crickets and see these beautiful animals year round without any barriers,” Salem said.

The Insect Asylum specializes in historical collections, with a variety of pinned insects, vintage and new taxidermy and mortuary art. 

Salem refuses to work on hunted animals and stresses her belief in ethically sourced specimens. She and the staff, including curator and educator Grace Johnson, have restored and preserved most of the large mammals on display, many that are over 60 years old. 

“I’m into making art of something that’s typically ‘not so beautiful,’” Johnson said. “It shows that death can be beautiful and being able to preserve the past and all of these animals to enhance their natural beauty is magical.” 

While several installations have been newly preserved by staff, the majority of the museum’s current work focuses on pets to provide rarely found commemoration for those grieving their companions. Those go to the owners and are not on display.

“It’s really beautiful because they get to be with us for a very short time, and then they get to go back home where they belong,” Salem said. 

Salem hopes the space might help guests face the grim reality of death. 

“People come here for all different reasons, and finding solace, mourning and grief are things that are … sticky,” Salem said. 

“There’s not a plant or an animal that will not go through this same intrinsic process of passing away,” Salem said. 

“By breathing new life into these animals we are allowing people to understand that there’s different ways to process and embrace grief.”

Since the museum’s opening, guests have brought deceased animals and animals experiencing the process of passing into the space for guidance and mortuary services. 

Salem said people who’ve lost friends and family also come to the space to grieve.

“My mother is dying and I don’t know what to do, and somebody said that I needed to come here, so I’m here,” Salem said a visitor shared.

Salem and the visitor discussed what it means to pass on as the visitor bonded with a baby raccoon — his mother’s favorite animal — that was housed at the museum for just several hours. 

The visitor later shared that his mother had passed away during the time he was feeding the racoon. 

Salem said that the visitor believed that the raccoon was his mother “showing him signs of new life.”

“If this place wasn’t here, I don’t know how I would’ve been able to process the grief and emotions bottling up that I was feeling. It gave me a really constructive way to look at death through a beautiful lens,” Salem said the visitor told her.  

The Insect Asylum also functions as an animal sanctuary and rehabilitation center for surrendered exotic animals and those in foster programs. Some need immediate care before finding their forever homes, Salem said. 

Salem remarks that guests often think it’s “kind of strange” that the museum has so many animals yet doesn’t keep them long term. 

Salem said she doesn’t believe all of the museum’s living animals belong there long term. The Insect Asylum hopes to be “a stop in the right direction” for animals in need. 

In addition to the preserved collection, the museum offers guests the chance to view live members of the animal kingdom including snakes, iguanas, geckos, and arachnids. Most are housed in the museum’s upper level, so that guests who may fear have the opportunity to safely view them “without the fear of them jumping out at you,” Salem said. 

The museum’s preservation of the natural world and animals promotes “preserving the past so that we can act on it in the future,” Johnson said. The goal, she said, is to advance awareness, understanding and appreciation of the natural world and animals in need. 

To those struggling with relocating to Chicago’s bustling urban environment, The Insect Asylum provides a chance to connect with nature through the exhibits, as well as local art installations and employee-led classes. 

“In this place, you get to realize, ‘Oh yeah, the planet! This thing that far outnumbers and outexists us!’ It’s good to know our place,” said Morph Borch, the museum’s sales and marketing specialist. 

“Animals are just little guys. They’re just doing their own thing. We’re one of many species that live here, and coexisting with them is how we avoid calamitous environmental consequences.”

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