The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, and its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections. The permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, include fossils, current cultures from around the world, and interactive programming demonstrating today’s urgent conservation needs.
The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field, the department-store magnate. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.
In 1921 the Museum moved from its original location in Jackson Park to its present site on Chicago Park District property near downtown where it is part of a lakefront Museum Campus that includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium.
These vintage photos from The Field Museum Library that show interior of The Field Museum from 1919 to 1922.
Corner of new Field Museum building showing railroad car with spiral at end, train tracks used in move from Field Columbian Museum, 1920
Female Caryatid statue with her right knee bent (sculptor was Henry Hering) shown prior to installation on Field Museum Exterior of building, 1919
Statue representing Knowledge by Henry Hering, female figure holding baby, for Northeast corner of Stanley Field Hall, 1919
Statue representing Science by Henry Hering, female figure holding a skull and a book, for Northwest corner of Stanley Field Hall, 1919
Caryatid statues and porch by Henry Hering, Field Museum of Natural History exterior, 1920
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