“Art Deco Architecture and Design at the Museum of Science and Industry” by S.M. O’Connor

The next time you go to the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.), check out the small exhibit on gears inside the Green Stairs. It’s coupled with a larger exhibit that features model steam engines. These twin exhibits focus on two of the pillars of the Industrial Revolution. The metal gears will be of particular interest to people who appreciate Art Deco architecture and interior design, like the Art Moderne-style Pioneer Zephyr down in the Entry Hall. If you like these exhibits, you may also appreciate the concept art in Imagining the Museum on the Lower Floor. Throughout the building, you may notice flourishes architect Alfred Shaw (1895-1970) incorporated into the Art Moderne interior when he restored Charles B. Atwood‘s Beaux Arts façade. Further, if you like these exhibits at the M.S.I., you may also like the temporary exhibit Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America over at the Chicago History Museum up in the Chicago Park District’s Lincoln Park on the North Side of Chicago. Both institutions belong to the umbrella organization the Museums in the Park.

Figure 1 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The gleaming metal gears ion display n the Green Stairs should be of special interest to museum visitors who like Art Deco architecture and interior design.

Figure 2 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: Museum guests can turn cranks to watch the gears move.

Figure 3 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: They may not be made of gleaming metal, but these gears in twin display cases near the Green Stairs entrance to Allstate Court (which houses the physics exhibit Science Storms) on the Main Level also has visual interest.

Figure 4 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This mural behind the escalators and stairs in the Entry Hall is made of stainless steel and is in the Art Moderne style like the Pioneer Zephyr, which sits at the opposite end of the Entry Hall. It was in the Applied Science exhibition sponsored by Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation.

Figure 5 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The engraved mural was in the Hall of Science at A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34).

All Aboard the Silver Streak is the first-built of two subterranean exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry. Its focus is the Pioneer Zephyr, also known as the Burlington Zephyr, a whole train that stands between the two wings of the M.S.I.’s underground garage, which is under the north lawn. The Entry Hall (formerly known as the Great Hall) connects the garage and exhibit to the rest of the Museum by way of escalators, stairs, and elevators. Named after the Greek god of the west wind, the Zephyr set a speed record on May 26, 1934, when it went from Denver to Chicago in thirteen hours and then went on display at Chicago’s second World’s Fair, A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34). The exhibit is devoted to the Zephyr, A Century of Progress, streamlining, and the benefits of stainless steel construction.

Figure 6 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is the Pioneer Zephyr in the exhibit All Aboard the Silver Streak.

Figure 7 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the Pioneer Zephyr, decorated for Christmas Around the World, as seen on Thursday, November 15, 2018.

Figure 8 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The exhibit All Aboard the Silver Streak includes a display case devoted to artifacts and archival posters from Chicago’s second World’s Fair, A Century of Progress (1933-34).

Figure 9 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: At the back of the All Aboard the Silver Streak exhibit hall is a display of artifacts that illustrate the influence the Pioneer Zephyr had on household products in terms of streamlining.

Imagining the Museum is a temporary exhibit of concept art and dioramas that takes up two galleries that flank the Lower Court at the M.S.I. Located on the Lower Level (ground floor), it helps celebrate the 85^th anniversary of the M.S.I.’s first opening ceremony in 1933. The exhibit includes drawings by staff artist Percy Hale Lund (1897-1972). He also designed the bronze panels that represented the M.S.I.’s curatorial departments in the middle two of the six doors at the north entrance of the Central Pavilion, the old main entrance.

Figure 10 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a concept drawing of the Coal Mine headframe by staff artist Percy Hale Lund in Imagining the Museum.

Figure 14 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a concept drawing E. Mowerton drew in 1932 of a scale model train set labeled “Subway – Surface and Elevated Transportation Exhibit” in the exhibit Imagining the Museum. The model train set E. Mowerton draw was never built, but The Great Train Story, which opened in 2002, does include Chicago’s “L” and subway lines.

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.

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.