Field Museum of Natural History


The Field Museum of Natural History, also commonly called the Field Museum, is a private–public 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, as well as its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections.
A private nonprofit institution, the museum operates in close partnership with the municipal government agency Chicago Park District, which owns the land and building. The museum is run by a private Board of Trustees and funded through a combination of ticket sales, memberships, donations, endowments, and grants, along with some public funding for specific programs or maintenance.
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.
The museum maintains a temporary exhibition program of traveling shows, as well as in-house produced topical exhibitions. The professional staff maintains collections of over 24 million specimens and objects that provide the basis for the museum's scientific-research programs. These collections include the full range of existing biodiversity, gemstones, meteorites, fossils, and extensive anthropological collections and cultural artifacts from around the globe. The museum's library, which contains over 275,000 books, journals, and photo archives focused on biological systematics, evolutionary biology, geology, archaeology, ethnology and material culture, supports the museum's academic-research faculty and exhibit development.
The academic faculty and scientific staff engage in field expeditions, in biodiversity and cultural research on every continent, in local and foreign student training, and in stewardship of the rich specimen and artifact collections. They work in close collaboration with public programming exhibitions and education initiatives.

History

In 1869, and before its formal establishment, the museum acquired the largest collection of birds and bird descriptions, from artist and ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot. In 1894, Elliot would become the curator of the Department of Zoology at the museum, where he worked until 1906.
To house the exhibits and collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition for future generations, Edward Ayer convinced the merchant Marshall Field to fund the establishment of a museum. Originally titled the Columbian Museum of Chicago in honor of its origins, the Field Museum was incorporated by the State of Illinois on September 16, 1893, for the purpose of the "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of artifacts illustrating art, archaeology, science and history". The Columbian Museum of Chicago occupied the only building remaining from the World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, the Palace of Fine Arts. It is now home to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
In 1905, the museum's name was changed to Field Museum of Natural History to honor its first major benefactor and to reflect its focus on the natural sciences.
Stanley Field was the president in 1906.
During the period from 1943 to 1966, the museum was known as the Chicago Natural History Museum. In 1921, the Museum moved from its original location in Jackson Park to its present site on Chicago Park District property near downtown Chicago. By the late 1930s the Field Museum had emerged as one of the three premier museums in the United States, the other two being the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
The museum has maintained its reputation through continuous growth, expanding the scope of collections and its scientific research output, in addition to its award-winning exhibitions, outreach publications, and programs. The Field Museum is part of Chicago's lakefront Museum Campus that includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium.
In 2015, it was reported that an employee had defrauded the museum of $900,000 over a seven-year period to 2014.

Attendance

The Museum received 1,018,002 visitors in 2022, ranking the 21st most-visited museum in the United States.

Permanent exhibitions

Animal Halls

Animal exhibitions and dioramas such as Nature Walk, Mammals of Asia, and Mammals of Africa allow visitors an up-close look at the diverse habitats that animals inhabit. Most notably featured are the man-eating lions of Tsavo. The Mfuwe man eating lion is also on display.
Species represented in the Animal HallsGallery
AardvarkMammals of Africa
African BuffaloMammals of Africa
African ElephantStanley Field Hall
Alaskan Brown BearMessages from the Wilderness
ArgaliMammals of Asia
BarasinghaMammals of Asia
BeaverMessages from the Wilderness
Beisa OryxMammals of Africa
Bengal TigerMammals of Asia
Blackbuck AntelopeMammals of Asia
Black RhinocerosMammals of Africa
Black WildebeestMammals of Africa
BongoMammals of Africa
Burchell's ZebraMammals of Africa
CapybaraMessages from the Wilderness
CaribouMessages from the Wilderness
Caribbean ManateeSea Mammals
Cattle EgretMammals of Asia
CheetahMammals of Africa
ChitalMammals of Asia
Common ElandMammals of Africa
CougarMessages from the Wilderness
DibatagMammals of Africa
LionMammals of Africa
Elephant SealSea Mammals
GaurMammals of Asia
Gelada BaboonMammals of Africa
GerenukMammals of Africa
Giant AnteaterMessages from the Wilderness
Giant Forest HogMammals of Africa
Giant PandaMammals of Asia
Giant Sable AntelopeMammals of Africa
Glacier BearMessages from the Wilderness
Grant's GazelleMammals of Africa
Greater KuduMammals of Africa
GuanocosMessages from the Wilderness
Hog DeerMammals of Asia
Hyacinth MacawsMessages from the Wilderness
IbexMammals of Asia
Imperial WoodpeckerMessages from the Wilderness
Indian GazelleMammals of Asia
Indian RhinocerosMammals of Asia
Indian SambarMammals of Asia
JaguarMessages from the Wilderness
LeopardMammals of Asia
Lesser KuduMammals of Africa
Mantled GuerezaMammals of Africa
Malay TapirMammals of Asia
Marsh DeerMessages from the Wilderness
Mexican Grizzly BearMessages from the Wilderness
Mountain NyalaMammals of Africa
Mule DeerMessages from the Wilderness
MuskoxenMessages from the Wilderness
NarwhalSea Mammals
NilgaiMammals of Asia
Northern Fur SealSea Mammals
OrangutanMammals of Asia
Plains ZebraMammals of Africa
Polar BearMessages from the Wilderness
Proboscis MonkeyMammals of Asia
PronghornMessages from the Wilderness
Reticulated GiraffeMammals of Africa
Roosevelt ElkMessages from the Wilderness
Sea OtterSea Mammals
Sloth BearMammals of Asia
Snow LeopardMammals of Asia
Somali WildassMammals of Africa
Spotted HyenaMammals of Africa
Striped HyenaMammals of Asia
Swayne's HartebeestMammals of Africa
TakinMammals of Asia
TapirMessages from the Wilderness
Thomas' Uganda KobMammals of Africa
WalrusSea Mammals
Wart HogMammals of Africa
Water BuffaloMammals of Asia
Weddell SealSea Mammals
White RhinocerosMammals of Africa
Yellow-checked GibbonMammals of Asia