Creator and hostess Leslie Mueller will take viewers to the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) for a behind-the-scenes tour of the U-505, in the premiere episode of the P.B.S. series Museum Access. The local broadcast of the premiere episode of Museum Access will be at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 1, 2018 (which is both Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day) on Chicago’s primary P.B.S. station, W.T.T.W. She will interview Kathleen McCarthy, M.S.I.’s Director of Collections, who will walk viewers through the history of the World War II German submarine-turned-American museum ship.[1]
UPDATE
The pilot episode was supposed to air on W.T.T.W. at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 1, 2018, and it was supposed to feature the U-505, according to W.T.T.W., the Museum of Science and Industry, and DirectTV, but the episode that actually aired was about the “Da Vinci Machines Exhibition,” a traveling exhibition of interactive models of machines designed by artist, engineer, and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Leslie Mueller interviewed Curator Mark Rodgers. [This exhibition was in rented space on the third floor of Water Tower Place, the vertical shopping mall at 835 North Michigan Avenue, near the actual Water Tower. Previously, it was at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver, Colorado. The Genius Productions Foundation, which produces this traveling exhibition, is a partner of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Florence. It also has a Michelangelo art exhibition and a multimedia stage show, Da Vinci & Michelangelo: The Titans Experience. The multimedia show was most recently staged at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum and The Clark Center for the Performing Arts in Arroyo Grande, California in September of 2017. Neither of the exhibitions nor the stage show are being presented anywhere right now, as far as I have been able to determine. If they are being presented somewhere, the Genius Productions Foundation needs to update its Website.] According to the Website of TV Guide, “The Da Vinci Machines; Florence, Italy Workshop” was the name of the tenth episode, and the first episode, “Museum of Science and Industry: U-505” aired for the first time anywhere on Friday, December 29, 2017.
Figure 1 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Museum Access creator and producer Leslie Mueller with a model of Leonardo da Vinci’s “air screw” from the “Da Vinci Machines Exhibition” profiled in the episode “The Da Vinci Machines; Florence, Italy Workshop.”
Leslie Mueller is an artist, graphic designer, and television producer whose works are in American embassies around the world and in private and corporate collections, as well. She has produced art segments for the Lifetime shows Our Home and Handmade by Design.
Figure 2 Credit Picture courtesy of the Museum of Science and Industry Caption: Museum Access creator and hostess Leslie Mueller chats with Museum of Science and Industry Director of Collections Kathleen McCarthy inside the U-505.
Figure 3 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Museum Access creator and hostess Leslie Mueller with a U.S. Navy officer in front of the port side of the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Figure 4 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is the forward torpedo room of the U-505.
Figure 5 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: The Museum Access Chicago Launch Party was at the Ambassador East Hotel.
Figure 6 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Museum Access creator and hostess Leslie Mueller on the Upper Level of The Field Museum, with her back to Stanley Field Hall.
Figure 7 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is a close up of Carl Akeley’s African Elephant Group (two stuffed African elephants, one charging the other’s midsection) in Stanley Field Hall at The Field Museum. Carl & Delia Akeley killed these elephants before he stuffed and mounted them.
Figure 8 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is a close-up of SUE the Tyrannosaurus rex as she appeared in Stanley Field Hall of The Field Museum before she was dissembled to be reassembled upstairs.
Figure 9 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Museum Access creator and hostess Leslie Mueller beside the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Figure 10 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is an Egyptian sphinx at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Figure 11 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is the portico of the John G. Shedd Aquarium.
Figure 12 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Museum Access creator and hostess Leslie Mueller before the Caribbean Reef at the Shedd Aquarium.
Figure 13 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is a bronze sculpture of Apollo 13 Captain James Lovell at the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago.
Figure 14 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: These are the cloisters at The Cloisters in New York City.
Figure 15 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is a radio studio at The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
Figure 16 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: These are terra cotta warriors and chariots from the exhibit Terra Cotta Warriors at The Field Museum.
Figure 17 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is Haupt Conservatory at The New York Botanical Garden.
Figure 18 Credit: Photo courtesy of Museum Access. Caption: This is model of Leonardo da Vinci’s “water organ” from the “Da Vinci Machines Exhibition” profiled in the episode “The Da Vinci Machines; Florence, Italy Workshop.”
In the next eight episodes, Ms. Mueller will address prominent exhibits at some of the largest museums in Chicago and New York City. She will profile SUE the Tyrannosaurus rex at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in the second episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, April 8, 2018; the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the third episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, April 15, 2018; beluga whales at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago in the fourth episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, April 22, 2018; 12th Century astronomical instruments and astronaut James Lovell at the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago in the fifth episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, April 29, 2018; the Unicorn Tapestries and other artworks at The Cloisters in New York City in the sixth episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, May 6, 2018; the Archives of The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago in the seventh episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, May 13, 2018; the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at The Field Museum in the eighth episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, May 20, 2018; and the Dale Chihuly glass art exhibit at The New York Botanical Garden in the ninth episode, scheduled to air on Sunday, May 27, 2018. Note, however, since the first episode to air was not the one advertised, I cannot guarantee any of these episodes will air in the scheduled order. It seems reasonable to me that since, for whatever reason, W.T.T.W. showed the last episode first, instead of showing the second episode next week, they should show the first episode next week.
[1] She was my direct supervisor when I was Interim Archivist of the Museum of Science and Industry and supervisor of my supervisor when I was Archival Assistant.
In the Garden City 