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The Field Museum of Chicago

This is one of the highlights.
This stained glass window
 was just there, in one of the gemstone galleries.. I think I spent some five minutes just
gazing at it, captivated.

We arrived some time midmorning, and headed in. The first thing to hit me was, as per the AMNH, the size. The entire entry area was larger than some of our floors. We got into the queue, which moved quickly (no doubt because the average customer was paying for their entire family), and thus we were in. Rather than run to "Sue", the Tyrannosaurus, we slowly approached, first engaging our mental acuity in a daring display of wits and worldliness. We did a jigsaw.



The jigsaw idea is brilliant, and I'm personally hoping we can implement something similar into our museum.

Rather than go through this museum in a progressive list of events, I think it may be easier to simply go by topics, since sometimes we would loop back past previous exhibits.

Sue

Here we can see "Sue" the Tyrannosaurus, the most complete and lrgest skeleton of her kind. She's 42 feet, or 12.8 metres from nose to tail, and damn impressive. I suppose I'm rather blessed in that I'm able to visualise the live animal when looking at the bones. I could easily imagine her ribs contracting and expanding with every breath, of the blood pouring through her system.. she is a very powerful and inspiring mount.





Another very impressive section was the "Life of Time" section, starting with the primordial ooze, and ending in the spectator questioning what comes next in human development.. Another thing that really struck me about the Field Museum is the way that interactive and non-traditional learning elements have been mixed in. There's no need for a separate learning area (although there is a very good one, aimed at reference material and further inquiry - we spent maybe an hour there chatting to the volunteer) - the exhibits all have interesting and captivating hands-on activities right there. One of the more humourous ones is the series of televisions dotting the gallery, with newsflashes pertaining to that point in time. eg "This just in, the first tetrapods have stepped onto the land." or "Sadly, the trilobites passed away today, at the grand old age of 200 million years. They left no descendents." Another way is to actively display theories with little devices - the best example that comes to mind is the wheel you can turn to match three flowers. Each flower is matched to a particular shape of hummingbird bill - thus demonstrating the interrelationships that the plant and animal kingdoms can have when evolving. It also gave us this:
Walky reenacting his own birth.

(Actually, this was a subroom of the cellular development section)

Finbacks galore, oh my! There's an Edaphosaurus, Dimetrodon, and others.
Dunkleosteus, largest of
 the placoderms, and Walky.


Dinobot turn at Walky, and say for you!
Yes, Swift, it was a slip of the tongue.
At least he finds it funny.

We probably spent a good five hours or so at the Field Museum, and out of the three museums I visited whilst in the US, I have to say it was pretty much my favourite. Granted, some of it is old, and other newer museums have nicer atmospheres.. but there's something about sitting next to a display of a pod of narwhals, diving under the icefloes, as you sip your Coke and nibble some Doritos.

I could say so much more, but time is short, and I'll save more for the second edit of these pages.

The skull of Carnotaurus sastrei.
Brachiosaurus skeleton outside.
Walky is a barnacle.

You can see Chicago Harbour here, where it links to Lake Michigan.
Best. Book. Ever.
Windchaser and Walkerton waving.

Click here to return to Chicago.

Errors? Comments? Email: finback@animail.net