“What is The Mystery Ship at the Museum of Science and Industry?” by S.M. O’Connor

Texaco No. 13, also known as The Mystery Ship, is a monoplane built in 1930 by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company of Dearborn, Michigan.[1] Originally, it was owned by the Texas Company (commonly known as Texaco), which is now a subsidiary of the Chevron Corporation. Captain Frank Monroe Hawks (1897-1938), a U.S. Army Air Service (now the U.S. Air Force) veteran of the First Great World War was the pilot. He had set many speed records in Texaco-sponsored airplanes. Hawks nearly died and Texaco No. 13 was nearly destroyed in an accident on the speed plane’s test flight, getting tangled in wires and landing nose down. On August 6, 1930, Captain Hawks flew The Mystery Ship across country from New York City to Los Angeles in 14 hours, 30 minutes, and 43 seconds. This flight was undertaken to set a new transcontinental speed record after an even more famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), had broken a previous one set by Hawks. Later, Captain Hawks was able to get the monoplane up to speeds of over to 200 miles per hour. He predicted that airplanes would continue to reach higher speeds and fly across greater distances. Optimistically, he predicted that the “effect” of this “upon the aviation fraternity will be to cement closer and closer their friendship and understanding.”[2] Texaco retired the plane in 1932, placed it on display at Chicago’s second world’s fair, A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34), and afterwards donated it to the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.).

Figure 1 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is how Texaco No. 13 airplane, a.k.a. The Mystery Ship, looked beside the Coal Mine headframe from the Farrell Family Court balcony on Thursday, November 15, 2018. It is hung from the ceiling as if the pilot was banking right.

Figure 2 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is how the Grand Tree and standard-sized Christmas trees in the Grand Rotunda and Farrell Family Court (South Court), Toymaker 3000, the Coal Mine headframe, and Texaco No. 13 airplane looked from the Farrell Family Court balcony shortly after the opening ceremony for Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light on Thursday, November 15, 2018.

Formerly, it hung suspended from the ceiling in the Transportation Gallery, also known as Grainger Court (East Court). It now hangs suspended from the ceiling in the Farrell Family Court (South Court) near the Coal Mine (Old Ben #17) headframe. This place was formerly occupied by a Coast Guard Seaguard helicopter, which the Coast Guard donated to the M.S.I. in 1989 and the M.S.I. transferred to the Naval Air Station Glenview Museum in Glenview, Illinois in 2006.[3]

On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, the M.S.I. reverted to regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). On the weekend of Saturday, November 17, 2018 and Sunday, November 18, 2018, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The M.S.I. will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22, 2018) and the First Day of Christmas (Tuesday, December 25, 2018). Extended hours (9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) will be in play again from Friday, November 23, 2018 to Sunday, November 25, 2018; Saturday, December 1, 2018 and Sunday, December 2, 2018; Saturday, December 8, 2018 and Sunday, December 9, 2018; Saturday, December 15, 2018 and Sunday, December 2016; Sunday, December 23, 2018; and Wednesday, December 26, 2018 through Sunday, December 30, 2018. There will be longer hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 22, 2018. On Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24, 2018) and New Year’s Eve (Monday, December 31, 2018), the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1, 2019), the M.S.I. will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. From Wednesday, January 2, 2019 through Friday, January 4, 2019, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) will resume on Saturday, January 5, 2019. The Museum of Science and Industry regularly makes small adjustments to this schedule, so when planning a trip there, check this Webpage and the M.S.I.’s social media for updates.

EXTENDED HOURS AND EXCEPTIONS

9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Saturday, November 17, 2018 Sunday, November 18, 2018
Closed	Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22, 2018)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Friday, November 23, 2018 Saturday, November 24, 2018 Sunday, November 25, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Saturday, December 1, 2018 Sunday, December 2, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Saturday, December 8, 2018 Sunday, December 9, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Saturday, December 15, 2018 Sunday, December 16, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.	Saturday, December 22, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Sunday, December 23, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24, 2018)
Closed	Christmas Day (Tuesday, December 25, 2018)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Wednesday, December 26, 2018 Thursday, December 27, 2018 Friday, December 28, 2018 Saturday, December 29, 2018 Sunday, December 30, 2018
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	New Year’s Eve (Monday, December 31, 2018)
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1, 2019)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Wednesday, January 2, 2019 Thursday, January 3, 2019 Friday, January 4, 2019

Often stylized as the “Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago” or the “Museum of Science + Industry” the institution is located at the northern end of the Chicago Park District’s Jackson Park, on the south side of 57^th Street, between Lake Shore Drive to the east and Cornell Drive to the west, in the East Hyde Park neighborhood of the Hyde Park Community Area (Community Area #41) on the South Side of Chicago. The address is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The M.S.I. is open every day of the year with two exceptions: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. On most days, it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but during peak periods it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

ENDNOTES

[1] Jay Pridmore. Inventive Genius: The History of the Museum of Science & Industry. Chicago, Illinois: Museum of Science & Industry (1996), p. 7

[2] He was proved correct to some extent, in the latter half of the 20^th Century, but the small commercial and passenger aviation services offered before the outbreak of the Second Great World War was overshadowed in the war years by fighter planes and bombers wreaking destruction across much of Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific Rim, and the comparatively peaceful postwar era has been punctuated by periodic wars and acts of terrorism that often involved states and terrorist organizations employing airplanes and helicopters to inflict massive casualties on enemies.

[3] In 1989, the United States Coast Guard donated a HH-52A Sikorsky Coast Guard Helicopter “Seaguard” CG #1459, which the Coast Guard had purchased for $500,000. It had been stationed at Naval Air Station Glenview (more popularly known as the Glenview Naval Air Station) in Cook County north of Chicago since 1980, and flown on approximately 200 rescue missions. At the time of the donation, the Coast Guard was replacing HH-52A model Seaguard helicopters with HH-65 Dolphins. The helicopter was installed in the South Court above the Coal Mine entrance between 18^th and 22^nd of September with the opening ceremony on September 22, 1989. In 2006, the Museum of Science and Industry transferred title to the helicopter to Glenview Hanger One Foundation located at the Naval Air Station Glenview Museum.

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.