This is Throwback Thursday #196. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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Today, we look back at the Columbian Museum of Chicago, which is now called the Field Museum. It opened it's doors in June 2nd, 1894. That was one year after the Columbian Exposition. The Columbian Exposition ran from May 1st, 1893 to October 30th, 1893. It had 27,300,000 visitors. Considering that at the time, the population of the US was about 66 million, that is an amazing number! The Field Museum's collection grew out of the exhibits at the Exposition. For the museum's first 27 years, it occupied the Columbian Museum building. That building now houses the Museum of Science and Industry. Back in 2013 and 2014, the Field Museum displayed artifacts and specimens from the Exposition called "Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World's Fair". This blog entry shows more photos and drawings of the Exposition. Information about the museum's collection from 1893 can be found here. Many of the artifacts and specimens are part of the modern exhibits.
These photos come from the Field Museum Photo Archive over on Tumblr.
Opening Day! Opening Day! Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair is open today!
Here is opening day of the museum on June 2nd 1894.The museum was originally housed in the World’s Columbian Exposition’s Palace of Fine Arts which is now the Museum of Science and Industry.
Come celebrate the Field Museum’s history!
© The Field Museum, GN78508.
Opening Day crowds. Field Columbian Museum of Chicago June 2, 1894.
11x14 negative
6/2/1894
Happy Chicago Day! On this day in 1893 the World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated Chicago Day, with record attendance. Our exhibit Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair opens on October 25th.
© The Field Museum, GN91733_064d, Photographer C.D. Arnold.
Crowds outside Administration Building. Chicago Day. World’s Columbian Exposition, October 9, 1893. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 people to the fair.
Lantern slide
10/9/1893
We hope you are as amped as we are about our exhibit Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair is opening up next Friday, Oct 25th, 2013. The fair was as beautiful at night as during the day being lit by over two hundred thousand electric light bulbs.
© The Field Museum, GN90799d_JWH_007w, Photographer William Henry Jackson.
Administration Building at Night, from Electricity Building. Large photographic print from The White City (As It Was). Photographs by William Henry Jackson. World’s Columbian Exposition 1893.
photographic print
6/1/1893
Field Columbian Museum in Jackson Park.
The Field Museum was incorporated in the State of Illinois on September 16, 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago. Its original home was in the Palace of Fine Arts building, one of a handful of buildings left from the World’s Columbian Exposition. In 1921 it moved to the current building and in 1933 the Museum of Science and Industry opened up in the old building in Jackson Park.
Learn more about the Field Museum’s origins in the new exhibit opening this Friday, Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair.
© The Field Museum, CSGN21029, Photographer Charles Carpenter.
Field Columbian Museum exterior, looking south with Lake Michigan in background. Horse and buggy in front. German Building from World’s Columbian Exposition at far left.
8x10 glass negative
1906
Make sure to put on your best dress for tomorrows opening of Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair. Come and learn the origin story of the Field Museum.
And don’t forget your hat!
© The Field Museum, CSGEO6232_1, Photographer J.W. Taylor.
Detail from CSGEO6232. West Court large Right whale skeleton. Man and woman standing near the restoration model of Mammoth, skeleton of mastodon. 1 man and 3 seated women in period 1894 dress, woman in white. Field Columbian Museum.
8x10 glass negative
1899
The models in the case of invertebrates are made of glass.
© The Field Museum, CSZ6227
Glass models of invertebrates, made by father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka originally exhibited at 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Includes Golden Jellyfish .Hall 24 Lower Invertebrates Field Columbian Museum.
8x10 glass negative
1899
