“2018 Illinois Free Days at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry” by S.M. O’Connor

Monday marked the beginning of 2018 Illinois Free Days at the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago. On Illinois Free Days, Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for all Illinois residents who show valid proof of residence such as a driver’s license or state identification card. No further Chicago residence discounts apply on Illinois Free Days. In 2018, the Illinois Free Days are the 8^th through the 11^th, the 15^th through the 18^th, the 22^nd through the 25^th, and the 29^th through the 31^st of January; the 1^st, the 5^th through the 8^th, the 12^th through the 15^th, the 20^th through the 22^nd, and the 26^th and the 27^th of February; Wednesday, March 14^th; the 4^th through the 7^th, the 11^th and 12^th of June; the 4^th through the 6^th, the 10^th through the 13^th, the 17^th through the 20^th, and the 24^th through the 27^th of September; and Monday, November 12^th.

2018 ILLINOIS FREE DAY SCHEDULE

Month	Dates
January	8-11, 15-18, 22-25, 29-31
February	1, 5-8, 12-15, 20-22, 26-27
March	14
June	4-7, 11-12
September	4-6, 10-13, 17-20, 24-27
November	12

Saturday, January 13, 2018 is Frito-Lay Free Day at the M.S.I., as I wrote yesterday. Free Museum Entry (general admission) tickets and special activities are courtesy of the Family Edition of Frito-Lay’s Dreamvention Contest. Note that on Frito-Lay Free Day and on Illinois Free Days, special exhibits like Brick-by-Brick and Robot Revolution, movies in the Giant Dome Theater, an onboard tour the U-505, Coal Mine tours, and the WOW! Tour of the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) require separate timed tickets that cost $12 per adult or $9 per child.

The Museum of Science and Industry stands at the north end of Jackson Park, along 57^th Street, between Lake Shore Drive to the East and Cornell Drive to the West. It is one of the Museums in the Park, a group of museums and other cultural institutions that sit on property that belongs to the Chicago Park District.

The M.S.I. opened within the Palace of Fine Arts in three stages between 1933 and 1940, as construction work was completed and exhibits were installed. The Palace of Fine Arts is the last exhibit building from the White City at the heart of Chicago’s first World’s Fair, the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) to remain standing in Jackson Park. The first opening ceremony of M.S.I. occurred during the first year of Chicago’s second World’s Fair, A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34).

As I related last week, Thursday, January 18, 2019 will also mark the beginning of 2018 Chicago Museum Week when Illinois residents will enjoy discounts of up to 25% off general admission, special exhibits, and giveaways. “Chicago Museum Week” is a “Week” in name only as it will last nine days, from Thursday, January 18, 2018 to Friday, January 26, 2018. The twelve participating institutions, in the order in which they were founded, are:

Institution	Foundation Year	Current Location
Chicago History Museum (founded as Chicago Historical Society)	1856	Lincoln Park
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences)	1857	Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park Zoo	1868	Lincoln Park
The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago Academy of Fine Arts)	1879	Grant Park
The Field Museum of Natural History (founded as the Columbian Museum of Chicago)	1893	Museum Campus
John G. Shedd Aquarium	1924	Museum Campus
Museum of Science and Industry (founded as the Rosenwald Industrial Museum)	1926	Jackson Park
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum	1930	Museum Campus
Museum of Contemporary Art	1967	Between Seneca Playground Park to the west and Lake Shore Park to the east
DuSable Museum of African American History (founded as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art)	1961	Washington Park
National Museum of Mexican Art (founded as the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum)	1986	Harrison Park
The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture	2001	Humboldt Park

They are organizing 2018 Chicago Museum Week through an umbrella organization: the Museums in the Park. Use the hashtag #ChicagoMuseumWeek while making posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to assure the attention of other people who love these institutions and the institutions themselves. The Museums in the Park would like enthusiasts to use the theme “Game Changers” on Thursday, January 18, 2018; the theme “I Love Museums” on Friday, January 19, 2018; “Museum Selfie” over the weekend of Saturday, January 20, 2018 and Sunday, January 21, 2018; “The Future” on Monday, January 22, 2018; “Perspectives” on Tuesday, January 23, 2018; The G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) on Wednesday, January 24, 2018; “Throwback Thursday” on Thursday, 25, 2018; and “Kids Day” on Friday, January 26, 2018. The sponsors of Chicago Museum Week are 365 Outdoors, 93.9 FM, Chicago Tribune Media Group, NBC5 Chicago, and TimeOut Chicago. The Museums in the Park gratefully acknowledge the support of the Chicago Park District on behalf of the people of Chicago.

The M.S.I. is open every day except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Most days, it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but during peak periods it has extended hours (until 5:30 p.m.). The address is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

Figure 1 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: In this picture, taken August 23, 2016, guests look at one of thirteen amazing LEGO® structures designed and built by LEGO® Certified Professional Adam reed Tucker in the temporary exhibit Brick-by-Brick.

Figure 2 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is the north entrance of the Museum of Science and Industry with U-505 banners hanging, as seen on Tuesday, June 17, 2014.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.