[2] Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the Art Nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.

In 1919, a group of prominent Chicagoans purchased the home and presented the deed as a gift to the American College of Surgeons, who used the building as administrative space until 1965.

[9] Other highlights include a brass chandelier from Thurlow Lodge with boars’ heads, hunting arrows, and hunting horns; Émile Gallé vases; Sèvres vases; gilt-bronze mantel clock by Deniére; paintings by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; and a dramatic Venetian marble sculpture by Oscar Spalmach depicting the mythical figures of Cupid and Psyche.

The third floor consists of a ballroom where most of the museum's public programs take place and a lounge where visitors can sit on an Art Nouveau furniture suite by Edward Colonna.

[5] The Driehaus Museum also regularly produces public programs—including concerts, lectures, and family programs—that align with its mission to promote architectural preservation, the decorative arts, and Gilded Age culture.

The gallery showcased eleven Tiffany stained glass windows that included ecclesiastical, landscape and figural themes, and a large fire screen.