Charles Frederick Gunther (March 6, 1837–February 10, 1920) was a German-American confectioner and collector. He purchased many of the items now owned by the Chicago History Museum.

Born in Württemberg, Gunther's family moved to Pennsylvania in 1842 and resettled in Peru, Illinois eight years later. In 1860, Gunther landed a job with Bohlen, Wilson & Company, an ice distributor based in Memphis, Tennessee. When the American Civil War broke out, Gunther pledged to "stick by Memphis", and helped transport Confederate soldiers along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. He was captured by Union troops in 1862, but was released and returned to Illinois. During the later years of the war, he worked as a traveling salesman for a Chicago candy manufacturer, mainly selling goods throughout the southern states.

In 1868, Gunther started his own candy company in Chicago. He specialized in caramel, which he is sometimes credited with introducing to the United States. Gunther's business was destroyed in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, but he quickly recovered and built a new factory on State Street. With wealthy customers such as socialite Bertha Palmer, Gunther buit a small fortune, and began purchasing historical relics to display in his factory. Many of these were artifacts from the Civil War, but one could also find more unusual items in his collection, some of dubious origin. Among other things, Gunther claimed to own the skin of the serpent from the Garden of Eden and the mummy of Moses' foster mother, Bithiah.^[1][2]

Gunther eventually turned his sights to the Libby Prison, a former Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia. Gunther purchased the structure and had it dismantled and shipped to Chicago, where it was reassambled and converted into a museum to house Gunther's artifacts. It opened to the public in 1889 and hosted thousands of visitors within its first few months of existence. Gunther's collection of historical artifacts continued to grow.^[1] Some of the objects on display included Abraham Lincoln's deathbed, manuscripts from the French and Indian War, a patent signed by George Washington,^[2] the table on which Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and alleged shrunken heads.^[1] Gunther even tried to purchase an Egyptian pyramid and Philadelphia's Independence Hall and bring them to Chicago, but he was unsuccessful.^[2]

During the 1890s, became involved with Chicago's growing convention industry. When the original Chicago Coliseum burned down in 1897, Gunther decided to build a new Coliseum on the site of the Libby Prison museum. The prison building was disassembled, and parts of it were donated to the Chicago Historical Society. Gunther offered the rest of his collection to the city, with the hope that the city would build a museum for it Garfield Park, but Illinois law prevented such a buiding from being constructed on park property.

After Gunther's death in 1920, the Chicago Historical Society purchased the bulk of Gunther's remaining artifacts, including Lincoln's deathbed. Shortly afterwards, the society began building a $1 million museum to display its expanded collection. The building opened in 1932 at Clark Street and North Avenue. The Chicago Historical Society was renamed the Chicago History Museum in 2006.^[3]