Rosehill Cemetery Tour with Author Adam Selzer

Chicago’s Rosehill is a museum of incredible art, and a collection of incredible stories. Some of the names and stories are still famous, some have been long forgotten, but all are worth rediscovering. From the M**der that inspired the cemetery’s creation to the twisting sagas of old families to events and ideas that shaped the world, there are new stories to find and mysteries to solve every time you step through the historic gates.

Tour guide Adam Selzer has made a career of uncovering those stories, poring over microfilm newspapers, crumbling paperwork, and old ladies’ diaries (just, a lot of old ladies’ diaries), with an aim not just to identify interesting people in the cemeteries where he works, but to find out what they were like, what it was like to know them, and how the interacted with each other and with history.

His Rosehill tours change from tour to tour, but may include an actress who performed for Lincoln the night he was shot, John Wilkes Booth’s sister-in-law, people involved in 1860s sex scandals, people who paid ghosts to paint their portraits, abolitionists and their rivals, an anti-corset crusader who hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his house, a crooked cop killed by the Jesse James gang, or the second wife (and likely accomplice) of an 1880s serial killer. There are new stories added all the time!

Adam is the author of Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols and Secrets (University of IL Press, 2022) (and the upcoming second volume), as well as Graveyards of Trinity Church and St. Paul’s (Arcadia 2025), HH Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil (S&S 2016) and the brand new Chicago’s Serial Husband: The Marriages and Murders of Johann Hoch (Arcadia 2025). He is a regular on the History and Travel Channels. His 90 minute Rosehill tours are informative, hilarious, and endlessly fascinating.

Praise for Adam's Cemetery Books:

"Tantalizing... A prolific and stylish writer, tireless tour guide, and passionate researcher." - Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

"A truth-seeking research glutton....(the book is) an adept melding of the tours, the research, and the writing." - Chicago Reader

"Emblematic of...hipster tour guides. Selzer goes beyond mere trivia. He turns up fascinating individual stories of cemetery residents without leaning too heavily on the big names." - Third Coast Reviews

WHAT TO KNOW:

- Meet just inside the gates off 5800 N. Ravenswood a bit before the start time (NOT the gates at Western and Bryn Mawr - the big stone ones on the other side). Adam will be checking people in. Look for the guy with the headset mic.

- Come see the 2026 version of the tour! We're always updating and changing the route around to add new stories.

- You won't need a paper ticket, just the name on your eventbrite order.

-The tour runs roughly 75-90 minutes, sticking mainly to the older part of the cemetery on the Eastern side. Much of the tour is on the paved portions, but the route does require some "off road" walking to get to some of the featured graves. If it's hot, we try to stay in the shade!

- There is no bathroom mid tour. Cemeteries don't generally have facilities set up throughout! You can use the one in the office before and after, though.

- There is a good deal of parking available right inside the gates (pull in and turn right), or tons of free street parking nearby on Ravenswood. The brand new Peterson/Ridge Metra station is now open only steps from the cemetery entrance!

- Tour runs rain or shine. The cemetery has a "no dogs or bikes" sign that we can't overrule. (Hey, back in 1892 a guy got so mad when his brother borrowed his bike and rode it through Rosehill that they had a fight that ended with one of them dead. Let's not start anything!)

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Host or Publisher Mysterious Chicago / Astonishing Chicago