This past year, I had the incredible privilege to work at the Field Museum as a volunteer in the Geology department. During that time, I learned A LOT about the Field's invertebrate paleontology collection. I got to see some of the first fossils in the museum's collection, and some from the 1965 acquisition of the University of Chicago's Walker Museum I even cataloged almost 500 specimens, but I never learned how The Field Museum of Natural History was created. Through researching the Field's past, I now know how instrumental certain people and events were in the founding of the Field Museum, and it is quite eye opening to see how far it's come from the 1890s to the 1910s to now.
The Field Museum history begins as the Columbian Exposition (in Chicago) ended. This was a huge gathering of millions of people from around the world to see various "Ripley's Believe it Or Not"- like exhibits, such as the world's largest piece of cheese, and some more serious exhibits, like fossils of the Chicago area. (
http://www.chicagohs.org/) There was also the world's first Ferris Wheel. The Exposition lasted from May 1 to October 30, 1893 and took up 630 acres in Jackson Park. There were many businesses that sprang up to tend to the enormous crowds that the Exposition attracted, such as hotels and restaurants. This boosted the economy of Chicago, but cost over $28,340,700. This time period was around the first time where it was socially acceptable for women to travel alone, which somehow led to one of the hotels being a cover for a mass-murderer. (
http://www.chicagohs.org/) There were more than 250,000 exhibits, some of which people like Frederick J.V. Skiff, who would later be the first director of the museum, thought should be in a museum, so he and many others fought to set one up. (
http://fieldmuseum.org/about/brief-history)
Of course, a huge problem of setting up a huge institution is money. A man by the name of A.W. Manning suggested that holders of Exposition stock should donate it to the Field Museum. This amassed an incredible amount of money - $1,500,000 from about 1,100 people! (
http://fieldmuseum.org/about/brief-history) At this time, the museum was named the Columbian Museum of Chicago, after the Columbian Exposition. (
http://fieldmuseum.org/about/history-museum)
The history of the name is also very interesting. As previously mentioned, the museum was first incorporated in the State of Illinois as The Columbian Museum of Chicago on September 16, 1893, after the Columbian Exposition. (
http://fieldmuseum.org/about/history-museum) Although the museum was incorporated then, it didn't open to the public until June 2, 1894. (
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/) A few years later down the line however, department store magnate Marshall Field (Store name is now owned by Macy's) wrote a check for $1,000,000, His nephew, Stanley, donated $2,000,000, and Marshall later donated another $7,000,000. (
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/) The Field's were the Museum's first major benefactors, and therefore, in 1905 the museum was renamed The Field Museum of Natural History in their honor.(
http://fieldmuseum.org/about/brief-history)
A major result of the Field's very generous donations was the present day building. The gigantic building cost a HUGE amount of money to build. The whole museum campus, including the Shedd Aquarium and the Atler Planetarium, is actually built on a man-made strip of land on the coast of Lake Michigan. A not-so-well known fact about the Field Museum is that it is sinking quite rapidly. The man-made strip of land is still settling into the Lake, and slowly taking the Main part of the Field Museum with it. There are, however, freshly built additions to the museum that aren't sinking, which took some incredible engineering. The Field Museum is now located very close to all other major cultural locations and museums in Chicago. (Paul Mayer: head of invertebrate paleontological collections)
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The Field Museum's Invertebrate Paleontology collection shows some of the beginnings of the Field's collections. These first fossils can be identified by their specimen number. Specimens numbered with a P and a number between 001 and 600 were all some of the specimens from the World's Fair. (Alex Laying: geology volunteer)
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