Field Museum

Movie appearances aside, however, the Field Museum was originally founded to house the biological and anthropological collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. That collection still remains the core of the Field’s permanent collection. However, in more than a century, the museum has grown into a home for more than 20 million specimens and a 25,000 volume natural history library.

The Field Museum boasts a number of both permanent and temporary exhibits to thrill museum goers of all ages. Nature exhibits include areas dedicated to the animals of Africa, North American birds, plants of the world, sea mammals, an underground adventure, and several galleries profile rocks, fossils, and gems of the world.

Permanent culture-related exhibits include a look inside Ancient Egypt, a chance to view a full scale Pawnee earth lodge, the hall of the Ancient Americas, the lacquer ware art of Japan, and an exhibit on travel to the Pacific.

Temporary exhibits change several times a year and the Field Museum has been a stop for some of the finest major traveling exhibits of the last several decades, including an excellent exhibit about Jackie Kennedy, the wonderful King Tut exhibition, and the Auschwitz Album, a photographical tour of the infamous Nazi death camp.

Kids will certainly want to visit the T-Rex named Sue, described as the largest, most complete, and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever unearthed, standing 12 feet high and 42 feet long.

The Field Museum is not only a wonderful place to tour but the curatorial staff here is also dedicated to research in a number of fields, including Anthropology, Botany, Geology, and Zoology and is a world-renowned leader in evolutionary biology and paleontology, and archaeology and ethnography.

The Field Museum also has four gift shops on site where visitors can purchase a number of wonderful items, from inexpensive souvenirs to beautiful jewelry and hand-crafted artwork. There’s also a better-than-average café at which to grab a bite to eat.

Visitors can explore the three floors of the museum on their own or take a guided “highlights” tour which departs twice each day and gives you the inside story on some of the museum’s most popular artifacts.