Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Chicago and is one of the most visited cultural institutions of the United States. With approximately 85,000 square feet on five levels, its more than 500 permanent employees and as many volunteers and an annual budget of more than $ 50 million, is one of the largest museums in the world. A complete tour in one day is considered to be difficult.
The Field Museum is located in close proximity to the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. The three institutions form the Museum Campus Chicago.
History
The museum was founded in 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago. After initially even counted art to his collections, focused to the area of responsibility with the renaming took place in 1905 on science and ethnology. In this case, the patron saint of Marshall Field made for a still significant endowment. 1921, the present house was ready for occupation on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Collections and Research
The Field Museum is home to more than 22 million preserved organisms and other collection objects. It belongs to the sector of the largest scientific and anthropological collections in the world. Numerous researchers are by lending in contact or work temporarily in the collections. The following departments are represented: ethnology, geology, botany, zoology, Office of Environment and Conservation and the Office for Cultural Exchange.
In addition, the museum has a specialized library with more than 250,000 titles. With the local universities, there is a lively exchange, in particular with the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois. In contrast to European museums but it is appreciated here that the universities get their own departments for systematics and taxonomy and not give up this cooperation. The so-called classical biology that deals with entire organisms will continue to be promoted in the U.S..
Museum Education
The Field is one of the first museums with extensive museum educational offer. Thus started the Harris - education program in 1912, which in particular is committed to the training of students and teachers. The independent Department of Education began its work in 1922.
Since June 2013, the YouTube channel The Brain Scoop is located at the Field Museum. Presenter Emily Graslie reported as Chief Correspondent at regular Curiosity video contributions on the collections and museum staff.
Exhibitions
Approximately 2 million visitors each year. In this case, all ages are encountered, even if the proportion of children and adolescents is strongest. Among the animals shown numerous mounted specimens of Carl Ethan Akeley (1864-1926) are represented, one of the most important and innovative taxidermists of the 20th century. The dioramas are qualitatively similar to those in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.
Permanent exhibitions
- Biology Evolution of life
- General Animal Science
- Bird habitats
- Primates
- The Tsavo Lions
- African Mammals
- Asian mammals
- Ogre from Mfuwe
- Nature trails
- North American Birds
- Plants in the world
- Reptiles and amphibians
- Marine mammals
- Adventure soil
- What is an animal?
- World of mammals
- Geology General Geology
- Meteorites and the cosmos
- Grainger Gallery of Minerals and cultural treasures
- Hall of Jade
- McDonald's Fossil Preparation Laboratory for
- Moving earth
- Paleontology
- Sue
- Ethnology Africa
- Past Egypt
- Eskimos and Northwest Coast tribes
- The first Americans
- Asia
- Travel across the Pacific
Others
The plot of the original book for the film The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child playing in the American Museum of Natural History, the movie itself but was shot in the Field Museum of Natural History. The wall paintings of the permanent exhibition The Story of Food Plants derived from the German and decorative painter Julius Moessel.