Science and Industry
Last week we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which I hadn't visited in years.
The exterior of the building hadn't changed much, and the layout of the interior was familiar, but most of the exhibits had been updated or were new. By the way, the scale model of Chicago buildings in the lower left photo are built entirely of Legos!
Probst & White /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
The museum is housed in the only building to have survived Chicago's famous and
ground breaking 1893 World's Columbian Exposition - the Palace of Fine Arts. Well, this isn't exactly the same structure, but a facsimile of the original.
The grand, ornate buildings of the Fair complex weren't built to last. While constructed
of a steel framework, most of the White City was covered in lath and plaster. The Palace was built of a little sturdier material since it housed art collections, and was turned into the Field Museum of Natural history at the Fair's end. But by the 1920s, the building was literally falling apart. The Field moved to a new location, so the old Fair building was rebuilt to house another museum. The 1893 exterior was recreated in exacting detail, only this time with a more permanent material, limestone.
In keeping with the times, 1929/30, the interior was designed with Art Moderne details,
some of which still survive. Then the cavernous spaces were filled with exhibits extolling the virtues of the arts of science and industry.
Now when I was a kid there were two exhibits on our "must see" list, no matter how many
trips we made over the years. One was to the "nine month gestation of a fetus from inception to birth" display. We always found the fetuses-floating-in-formaldehyde absolutely fascinating. Then there were the baby chicks, a giant incubator of eggs cracking open with tiny, little birds emerging from their shells. Last week we stood watching these wet, soon to be fluffy chicklets along with hundreds of youngsters screaming with delight, just like I did decades ago. And by then, it was time for these two oldsters to head on home.
Posted by designslinger at 1/25/2010 1:55 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Preservation, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: museums Palace of Fine Arts World's Columbian Exposition 1893 World's Fair D.H. Burnham Co.
Categories: Architecture, Preservation, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: museums Palace of Fine Arts World's Columbian Exposition 1893 World's Fair D.H. Burnham Co.
beautiful blog I am writing this on a very
fancy wireless computer actually i am dictating this e mail through my personal
assistant edward good bye
Thanks for the visit! You finally got to see designslinger! And a special thank you to your very able assistant, Edward.
When I was a child we used to take an annual trip to Chicago to see the various museums. The one exhibit that I will never forget is the sectioned up human bodies. AsI recall there was half a man and half a woman sliced up into 1/2 inch sections. It was rather grotesque but also very fascinating. Is that still there? I wonder if it has held up over the time.
-K
It's still there. We hunted for them as well. They no longer line the stairwell walls, but stand in an open exhibit area about the human body. And, they look a little worse for wear!
A fantastic presentation. Very open and informative. You have beautifully presented your thoughts in this blog post.
Thanks!