Field Museum, in Chicago, is one of the world’s largest and best-known natural history museums. It serves as a center for public education and for scientific study of the world’s environments and cultures. The museum’s collections include more than 20 million items, including both artifacts (things made by people) and natural objects.
The Field Museum’s department of education provides lectures, short courses, and workshops. The museum also conducts natural history tours and sends traveling exhibits to schools. Its library has many thousands of volumes for the use of scientists and the general public. The museum’s Rapid Biological Inventory program conducts studies of threatened wilderness areas. The museum is privately supported but receives funds from the city, state, and federal governments.
Exhibits.
The museum collections are organized into anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology. The Field Museum is widely known for its dinosaur fossils, especially “Sue,” a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton measuring 42 feet (13 meters) in length. The museum’s resource center provides further opportunities for in-depth learning. The center has books, computer programs, museum samples, and other materials. The museum also presents exhibits on the Internet.
History.
The Chicago merchant and philanthropist Marshall Field I founded the museum in 1893 and gave it more than $9 million during his lifetime. The museum was first called the Columbian Museum of Chicago. Within a year of its founding, its name was changed to the Field Columbian Museum. The current building was designed by the famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and opened in 1921. During most of the period from 1905 to 1994, the museum was known as the Field Museum of Natural History. From 1943 to 1966, it was called the Chicago Natural History Museum. In 1994, it became known simply as the Field Museum. 
