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The Field Museum

© Judith Stock

The mission of the Field Museum is the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of objects illustrating art, archaeology, science, and history. In 1893, the museum opened as the Columbian Museum of Chicago, in Jackson Park. Then in 1905, the museum went through another name change, Field Museum of Natural History, in honor of the museum's major benefactor, Marshall Field. People familiar with Chicago know that Marshall Field founded the department store dynasty known as Marshall Field and Company.

Two-name changes later, the museum moved to its present home in the Chicago Park District near downtown, part of the lakefront museum campus, along side the popular John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. The core of the museum's collection is from the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Many purchases, exchanges, gifts, and worldwide expeditions later, the collection has grown to include 20 million specimens.

Temporary exhibits at the Museum:

Dead Sea Scrolls - March 10th through June 11th, 2000. This exhibit is on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Written over 2,000 years ago, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of desert caves at Qumran in 1947. Many debates have taken places, both by scholars and citizens, regarding the origins of the scrolls but it is popularly believed to be the earliest surviving copies of the Old Testament, written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The exhibit is set up to explore the historic context, the story of the discovery, authors of the scrolls, and other archeological discoveries at Qumran.

On-Line exhibit on the Web:

The Butterflies & Moths collection: 200,000 specimens from all over the world, dating back to 1870 and early 1900s. The focal point of this colorful assortment is the Herman Strecker Collection. Some specimens were acquired on expeditions to China and New Guinea. On exhibit is a 9-inch African Giant Swallowtail, the largest butterfly in the collection.

At the website you can send a question to "Ask a Scientist." Learn about Bug Camp for kids in the 7th through 9th grade. Or search the Diptera Collection database on the web.

A lakefront monolith, the Field Museum, houses a number of unique and rare collections, treasures of history and its people.

http://www.fieldmuseum.org

The copyright of the article The Field Museum in Art Museums is owned by Judith Stock. Permission to republish The Field Museum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.