The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago: Dinosaurs, Mummies, and a Century of Wonder

From a World’s Fair Collection to One of the World’s Greatest Museums

The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is one of the oldest and largest natural-history museums on the planet. Founded in 1893 to house the collection gathered for that year’s World’s Columbian Exposition, the Field Museum has grown into a building that holds more than 20 million specimens and draws millions of visitors every year.

The museum opened on April 21, 1893, on the Museum Campus in Grant Park, built to house a collection spanning biology, anthropology, geology, and physics. It was the brainchild of Marshall Field, the department-store magnate, whose endowment transformed a private collection into the world’s most ambitious museum of natural history. The Field Museum of Natural History was officially named after him in 1898.

The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, today on the Museum Campus — The Field Museum of Natural History on the Museum Campus in Grant Park, today. The building has been on this site since 1893.
*Joe Ravi / Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0*

The Field Museum, Chicago, 1940s: its classical stone facade on the Museum Campus — The Field Museum in the 1940s — its blend of Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts architecture has anchored the Museum Campus for a century.
*DeVoe Photo Studio / Library of Congress / public domain*

Sue: 130 Million Years in a Chicago Hall

The museum’s most famous resident is Sue, a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton designated FMNH PR 2081. She was discovered on August 12, 1990, by amateur fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson during a commercial excavation near the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. Hendrickson, who grew up in a family that ran a gas and propane business, became one of the most prominent fossil collectors in the world.

After a lengthy legal battle involving the sale of the fossil for approximately $6.1 million, the Field Museum acquired Sue in 1992. Museum paleontologists then spent more than 30,000 hours preparing, repairing, and mounting the skeleton — a process that turned a fossil skeleton with 187 bones into an interactive experience that captivated audiences worldwide. Sue measured more than 40 feet long and weighed over 15 tons during life.

She was unveiled to the public on September 18, 2000, in the Stanley Field Hall, a dedicated exhibit space that allows visitors to walk alongside the skeleton at ground level. Sue remains one of the largest and best-preserved T. rex in the world, and the only complete adult specimen on public display.

Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (FMNH PR 2081), displayed in Stanley Field Hall at the Field Museum — Sue, the largest and most complete *Tyrannosaurus rex* ever recovered, on display in Stanley Field Hall.
*Jorge Jaramillo / Wikipedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0*

Egypt, Mummies, and Ancient Civilizations

Beyond dinosaurs, the Field Museum is home to one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities on the North American continent. The Inside Ancient Egypt gallery features mummies, artifacts, and life-scale reconstructions of domestic life spanning more than three thousand years of Egyptian history.

Many of the museum’s Egyptian collections trace back to the early 1900s, when Egyptian antiquities were prominently displayed at world’s fairs across the United States. The artifacts below come from the Department of Anthropology’s Egyptian exhibit at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis — a time when the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt was at its peak and the museum world was in full expansion.

An Egyptian exhibit showing a mummy and other artifacts at the Department of Anthropology, 1904 World's Fair, St. Louis — An Egyptian exhibit — a mummy and other artifacts — on display at the Department of Anthropology during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
*Official Photographic Company / Library of Congress / public domain*

Life-size models of an ancient Egyptian dinner scene, 1904 World's Fair — A reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian dinner scene as presented at the 1904 World’s Fair — one of the era’s most popular displays.
*Official Photographic Company / Library of Congress / public domain*

The Museum Today

The building that opened in 1893 remains essentially the same structure on the Museum Campus today, though it has been expanded and modernized over the decades. Its soaring Great Hall — crowned by the glass dome added in 1990 — houses exhibits that range from dinosaur skeletons and ancient Egyptian relics to modern human evolution and global biodiversity.

The Field Museum continues to serve as one of the preeminent institutions for scientific research and public education in the United States. Its researchers travel the world to catalog and study organisms, from deep-sea creatures to extinct mammals, and its exhibitions have welcomed generations of students and families to marvel at the natural world and the long, winding story of life on Earth.

Image credits. Top: Field Museum of Natural History today — Joe Ravi / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikipedia Commons. 2nd: Field Museum, Chicago, 1940s — DeVoe Photo Studio / Library of Congress / public domain. 3rd: Sue the T. rex (FMNH PR 2081) — Jorge Jaramillo / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikipedia Commons. 4th & 5th: Egyptian antiquities from the 1904 World’s Fair — Official Photographic Company / Library of Congress / public domain. Sources: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, and Wikimedia Commons.