Dick Tracy Museum

Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy Museum in Woodstock, IL officially closed yesterday with a closing ceremony. The museum announced earlier this year that it would be closing its doors due to financial reasons.

Gould, who lived in Woodstock for much of his life, started drawing the Dick Tracy comic in 1931 and continued to do it for 46 years. At its peak, the comic strip was published in 600 newspapers, Johnson said.

The privately funded museum, which opened in 1991, had been struggling financially for a couple of years.

“It’s quite a loss for the community,” Johnson said of the closing. “It’s such a nice concentration of history. It’s 60 years of the art of a genius.”

Some of the artwork and memorabilia will remain at the Old Courthouse Arts Center where the museum was located. Other items will be donated the McHenry County Historical Society and other museums. About 300 pieces will be photographed and made available to the public via an online exhibit in the near future, according to an article in the Northwest Herald.

The Gaylord Herald Times has posted several photos that it took when it toured the museum earlier this spring.

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Dick Tracy is syndicated by Tribune Media Services (the company I’ve been working at since 2000). It just seems like one of the places I should go to.