Chicago's Field Museum grew out of the 1893 World's Fair
When the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition closed, Edward Ayer persuaded department-store magnate Marshall Field to fund a museum for its exhibits. The result now holds over 24 million specimens and objects, from the man-eating lions of Tsavo to 23 human mummies, and ranks among the largest natural history museums anywhere.
Illinois incorporated the institution on September 16, 1893, as the Columbian Museum of Chicago, housed in the fair's sole surviving building, the Palace of Fine Arts in Jackson Park, today the Museum of Science and Industry. It took Field's name in 1905, was called the Chicago Natural History Museum from 1943 to 1966, and moved in 1921 to its present lakeside site, now sharing a campus with the Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. By the late 1930s it stood alongside New York's American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian as one of the country's three leading museums.
Its collecting began even before its founding: in 1869 it obtained the biggest assemblage of bird specimens and descriptions then known from ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot, who later served as zoology curator from 1894 to 1906. A library of over 275,000 books, journals and photo archives supports researchers who run expeditions on every continent. The museum is a private nonprofit, while the Chicago Park District owns the land and building.
Exhibits range across billions of years. Evolving Planet traces life over 4 billion years, and the synapsid fossils include 46 holotypes, the reference specimens that define species. Inside Ancient Egypt reproduces the mastaba tomb of Unas-Ankh, son of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Unas, incorporating two genuine rooms with 5,000-year-old hieroglyphs; in 2024 staff CT-scanned 26 mummies. Visitors can also enter Ruatepupuke II, a genuine Māori meeting house built in the 19th century, and the Cyrus Tang Hall of China, which opened in 2015 with 350 objects.
Newer galleries reflect changing attitudes. Native Truths, opened in 2021, uses about 400 artifacts to centre Native peoples' own voices. The museum drew 1,018,002 visitors in 2022, placing it 21st among American museums.
Source: Field Museum of Natural History
