The Field Museum of Natural History

I decided that I would head over to the Field Museum as it has been a long time since I have been there. From my previous visits there, I remember it to be a pretty neat place to visit as it has exhibits from many different aspects of history and natural history. The Museum was established as the Columbian Museum of Chicago in 1893 with the purpose of accumulation of knowledge of art, archaeology, science and history. It was originally housed in the building that is now known as the Museum of Science and Industry and in 1905 was named the Field Museum after its first major benefactor, Marshall Field. In 1921, it was moved to its current location.

If you have learned one thing in following my blog, you will know that I love architecture. Therefore, I will try to get pictures of good architecture when I can. The Field Museum is no exception. It is built in a classic style with lots of statues and friezes.

You can see the nice columns. On the sides are a pair of exhibits that are going on right now (I didn't go see either as I was mostly just interested in seeing the museum itself).

One of the sides of the building. It's amazing just how big this building is.

One of the friezes dedicated to archeology.

Another one dedicated to geology.

Inside of the museum is a pair of really tall totem poles.

This is the head of Sue, she represents the largest and most complete Tyranosaurus Rex skeleton currently known. Although, this isn't her real head, the real head is elsewhere in the museum. They speculate that she was about 29 years old when she died.

Probably my favorite shot from yesterday, I would hate to be experiencing this shot if the skeleton were still a dinosaur or some evil thing animated it.

A shot of the skeleton from the front. The woman in front represents one of the things I hate about trying to take pictures in a museum. Just when I think I have a nice clean shot, someone will pop in.

There is a pretty extensive collection of stuffed wildlife of North America. This one represents a deer in the late summer early fall as he has velvet antlers.

One of the few times you'll see a beaver shot on this blog.

As I looked around the museum, I saw that they had a badger and some other animals from the weasel family. I was about to write the museum off until I saw this guy...a wolverine. I like taking pictures of animals when they are stuffed as it gives me an opportunity to get pictures I wouldn't normally get, but in this case, I can see live wolverines at the zoo, so not as much. However, I do like wolverines so here he is.

This was part of an exhibit dealing with Africa. I don't remember seeing this exhibit before or if I did, they might have re-arranged it so it felt more like you were travelling there. I think more museums are going this route as they have to compete with other entities.

Part of the Egypt exhibit. I would imagine that this is one of the most popular and famous exhibits that the museum has. Basically, they recreated the tomb section of a pyramid and you get to walk through it. This spot had the best lighting, so I was probably able to get one of my better pictures inside the museum.

Of course, it wouldn't be a section dealing with Egypt if it didn't have a mummy. There are several mummies at this museum.

Another one of the mummies.

This was part of a section downstairs that I don't remember from the last time I visited. It is a statue depicting some warriors from Africa.

These are some statues from the Pacific Islands.

For some reason, this mask reminded me of Beavis or Butthead.

From a golden statue from Tibet. I thought it was pretty neat.

One of the statues inside the musuem. As you walk in the museum, there is a fairly impressive hall. This is where the first T. Rex skeleton is, also the Totem Poles and a really cool sculpture of some elephants.

This is a Daspletosaurus skeleton.

A pure gold statue. I can only imagine the value of the collection of the Field Museum.

A necklace from the gem collection.

Some other gems. I like the brilliance of them.

Another necklace.

A shot of the museum as I walk away. Apparently, the museum has a pretty large collection and only fractions of it are display at any given time. They also have scientists on staff that expand our knowledge of things. I kind of rushed myself through the museum but I did see quite a bit and I'm happy with it.