The Chicago Field Museum is one of the best Natural History Museums we've visited. Its main attraction is Sue (the world's largest, most complete and most famous T. Rex) . Sue is an amazing sight. Just imagine what it must have been in real life. Scary.
They have many, many exhibits. We just missed the upcoming Tutankhamun which is opening this week and we also missed when it visited Ft. Lauderdale. But we did see most of the rest of the museum as we did take our time there.
Their animal collection (taxidermy) is second to none. Very complete dioramas and glass case after case of mammals and birds.
They had a special exhibit of the recentrly found Tiktaalik, a very primitive fossil of one of the missing links for the jump of animals from sea to land.
"Evolving Planet", is a new exhibit opened in March 2006. It examines how life has unfolded on Earth over the course of 4.5 billion years through the process of evolution. Their collection and presentation of fossils is unrivaled. One of the best and most complete I've seen.
Their hominid section features a life-sized reconstruction of "Lucy," one of the oldest members of the human family (Australopithecus Afarensis). The nearly complete fossil was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. About 4 feet tall, the Field's depiction of "Lucy" shows her walking upright with a light coat of hair over her body (truth be told, anthropologists are not 100% sure if the "Lucy" skeleton was male or female).
As my wife said to me while walking there: "how would anyone be able to dispute evolution after seeing this?". Sadly there are still creationists out there disputing the exhibit in this museum, with not a trace of scientific evidence for any of their claims.
The anthropology section is very good, specializing in Pacific Island and American cultures and a special permanent exhibit on Tibet. Just a notch below the more complete and amazing collection in the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico DF).
They have a decent gem and mineral collection, though smaller than in other museums, it was very complete, including meteorites.
There was also a wonderful photography exhibit from famous photographers such as Margaret Bourke-White. Two of her most famous photographs in exhibit, which I remember seeing over 30 years ago in the old Life Magazine are:
After visiting this museum, I can post my Top List (of the ones I visited):
- American Museum of Natural History (New York)
- Natural History Museum (London)
- Field Museum (Chicago)
- Smithonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C.)
- Vienna’s Museum of Natural History (Austria)
- Denver Museum of Nature and Science
- National Museum (Národní Muzeum - Prague)
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