“Illinois Resident Free Days at Shedd Aquarium” by S.M. O’Connor

Beginning on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, Illinois residents can enter the John G. Shedd Aquarium for free the rest of the month, thanks to the Ford Motor Company Fund. Illinois residents must furnish proof of state residence to enjoy Illinois Resident Free Days. The Shedd Aquarium’s Illinois Resident Free Days entails general admission to all aquarium exhibits and experiences, including the multi-species aquatic presentation, the Shedd’s new exhibit Underwater Beauty, daily dive presentations, and animal chats.

General admission does not cover the 4-D movie, but tickets are just $4.95 per person. Wednesday, October 3, 2018 and Wednesday, October 10, 2018 will also be Illinois Resident Free Days. Please note that there is a $3 transaction fee for reserving free Illinois Resident Free Day tickets online. Also, Stingray Touch animal encounter will be open until Wednesday, September 12, 2018.

“As students head back to school and focuses turn to learning, these September free days make it easier than ever for families to support academic or in school learning by visiting Shedd, where we encourage curiosity around science,” stated Jo-Elle Mogerman, Vice President of Learning and Communities at the Shedd Aquarium. “We encourage people across the state – adults, friends and families – to take advantage of this new, expanded access and come eye-to-eye with nature here at the aquarium.”

Further, the Shedd Aquarium has introduced extended hours (from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) for adults with new themed programming and music three days a week. There is After Hours programming featuring themed music and custom food and drink menus. [Please note that After Hours is sold out for Thursday, September 6, 2018.]

Mondays

September 10^th, 17^th, and 24^th

Shedd After Hours: Caribbean Flavors and Flair

· Menu features Caribbean-inspired cuisine

· Guests explore the Shedd Aquarium, including the exhibit Caribbean Reef

Wednesdays

September 5^th, 12^th, 19^th, and 26^th

October 3^rd and 10^th

Jazzin’ at the Shedd: Live Latin Rhythms

· Menu features Latin food and cocktails

· Live Latin jazz performers – click here for the 2018 Jazzin’ Band Lineup

· Food is served both inside the Shedd Aquarium and on the lakeside terrace

Thursdays

September 6^th, 20^th, and 27^th

Shedd After Hours: House Party

· Disc Jockeys (D.J.s) bring a style of music invented in Chicago, house music, to the Shedd Aquarium

· Local D.J.s including Jesse Saunders, DJ Terry Hunter, and Farley Jackmaster Funk perform

· Guests sample “tasty bites and beverages” while taking in the Chicago skyline

Please note Shedd After Hours: House Party will not take place on Thursday, September 13, 2018 dur to a private event. The Shedd Aquarium will make up this date by staying open late with special programming on Tuesday, December 4, 2018.

Due to the popularity of Illinois Resident Free Days, the Shedd Aquarium reminds guests that attendance is limited to building capacity. Tickets may be reserved either online in advance ($3 transaction fee) or purchased at the door.

Additional access programs are offered year-round through a variety of offerings, including free admission to eligible poor families every day presenting an EBT card via the Museums for All program, to Chicago Park District youth groups and staff members, Illinois school teachers and K-12 school groups, Chicago police officers and firefighters, and families with children using Kids Museum Passports available at Chicago Public Library branches. Active-duty American armed served personnel receive free general admission when they furnish their identification, but this does not cover family. American military veterans and retired military personnel receive a $3 discount on-site, but this does not cover family. To learn more about these programs, click here.

Figure 1 Credit: John G. Shedd aquarium Caption: Lohan Associates designed the Oceanarium Addition (1991). Built on 1.8 acres of lakefill, it covers 170,000 square feet and was the first building expansion in Shedd’s history and the largest indoor marine mammal facility in the world.

The John G. Shedd Aquarium is located on the Museum Campus in the Chicago Park District’s lakeside Burnham Park. The address is 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. The phone number is (312) 939-2438. The Website U.R.L. is https://www.sheddaquarium.org/.

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.