The Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex called known as the Museum Campus which includes Soldier Field, the football stadium that is the home of the Chicago Bears, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium and a fine view of the buildings of the ChicagoLoop. The architecture of this building typifies the style initiated by the World Columbian Exposition of the 1890s. A walk in downtown Chicago will reveal an entire series of monumental buildings such as this one. There are so many that a Chicagoan finds them commonplace, and that it takes a visitor to elicit a comment about the history of the city. Even the football stadium has the signature classical Greek-style columns.
Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rexfossil skeleton (http://www.fieldmuseum.org/sue/default.htm) currently known.
A comprehensive set of human cultural anthropology exhibits, including artifacts from ancient Egypt, the Pacific Northwest, and Tibet.
A large and diverse taxidermy collection featuring many large animals, including two prized African elephants, and the infamous Lions of Tsavo featured in the 1996 movie "The Ghost and the Darkness".
It was named the Columbian Museum of Chicago on September 16, 1893 but renamed after Marshall Field, a major donor, in 1905.
The museum was originally housed in the structure now occupied by the Museum of Science and Industry but the current location is a building that opened in 1921.
The Museum's newest permanent exhibit, "Evolving Planet" (formerly "Life Over Time"), utilizes the museum's extensive fossil collection, in order to present both the history and the evolution of life on earth, over a span of 4 billion years, from the first organism to present-day life.
The FieldMuseum is much more than simply an exhibit museum or a "dead animal zoo," it is also a vibrant academic institution and one of the world's leading research museums.
The FieldMuseum's fossil fish collection is one of the two largest in North America (the collection of the American Museum in New York is roughly the same size) and one of the four largest fossil fish collections in the world.
At the Museum it is our task to be guardians and caretakers of this immense store of data and knowledge for generations to come, just as the world's great libraries curate the written word of humanity's various societies and cultures.
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