“Spooktacular Halloween at the Abe Lincoln Presidential Museum” by S.M. O’Connor

“Spooktacular Evening with Abe” at the Abe Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield

If you live in or near Springfield, Illinois, and are looking for family-friendly events around Halloween, “A Spooktacular Evening with Abe” will be at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum on Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. [The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is directly across the street from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. They are both on Sixth Street in downtown Springfield.] The address of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is 212 North Sixth Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701.

The event begins at 6:30 in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Plaza. There will be historical characters “haunting” the exhibits. There will also be eerie lighting and music.

Costumes are welcome. Entertainment includes games, crafts, and live music with a D.J. Snacks and drinks will be available.

Children must be accompanied by adults. No adult costume can include hoods or masks.

Tickets are $10 per family (free for Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation Member families). One may become a member by calling (217) 557-5589.

One must register and purchase tickets from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in advance online here or by calling (217) 557-5589. No tickets will be sold at the door.

This event has been going since 2013. Around 800-900 people attend every year, about 450 of who are children.

I asked a spokeswoman a few questions about the event.

Q: Have you noticed any trends in attendance?

A: Springfield is definitely a Halloween town so the event has held very strong in attendance over the years. It still seems to be very steady and slightly growing. Springfield offers many community activities like this at the mall, stores, churches, etc.

Q: Do kids mostly wear store-bought costumes or home-made costumes?

A: It is a lot of both really! We have had costume contests in the past but now we just encourage costume. They are not required. It grew so large the logistics of picking one favorite was impossible. They are all adorable in our eyes. There are of course a few Abraham Lincoln’s in the crowd as well!

Q: Do you have any contests for best costume, etc.?

A: We used to but did away with it over time due to logistics.

Q: Do proceeds support programs at the Museum like this or go into a more general fund?

A: This event is provided free to all members and their families as a membership benefit. We do open it to the community for $10/family no matter the size. Families bring all the kids and grandparents come along for the festivities, too. The proceeds collected does not cover the expenses incurred. The ALPLF has over 6000 members across the world.

Figure 1 Credit: Chris Wills, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Caption: Chris Wills photographed these girls at the 2017 Spooktacular on October 21, 2017.

Figure 2 Credit: Chris Wills, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Caption: These girls seem to be meeting (an actress dressed as) the ghost of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln (Mary Todd Lincoln) at the 2017 Spooktacular.

If you have a question, call (217) 558-8844. INB Bank is the sponsor.

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.