“Full Moon Fest at the Museum of Science and Industry” by S.M. O’Connor

The Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, December 22, 2018 for the all-ages Full Moon Fest. This will be the culmination of month-long celebrations at the M.S.I. commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission. The first Full Moon Fest at the M.S.I. will be held during the last full moon of 2018. Full Moon Fest activities will begin at 5:00 p.m.

The M.S.I. is partnering with its sister institution in the Museums in the Park, the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, which is located on the Museum Campus up in the Chicago Park District’s Burnham Park, to setup multiple telescopes in the M.S.I.’s Smart Park (formerly called Beaver’s Park). [The Smart Park is the plaza between the Museum of Science and Industry’s East Pavilion and Henry Crown Space Center (H.C.S.C.), and is home to the Smart Home.] Guests will also be able to chat with astronomers about the Moon and make “space slime.”

In addition, guests will be able to tour the temporary exhibition “Moon Room 1968,” which is located inside the first floor of the Smart Home. Guests will enter a recreation of a mid-20^th Century living room to experience watching the Apollo 8 mission the way millions of Americans did in their homes. There, guests can also type letters to the Apollo 8 crewmen and get keepsakes with a 1960s Christmas photo and retro-themed gift shop that sells vintage M.S.I. mementos, rotary phones, and throwback toys.

The film Journey to Space (2015), narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart, will also be playing in the Giant Dome Theater in the H.C.S.C. through Sunday, January 6, 2019. The film elucidates the challenges N.A.S.A. must overcome to explore deep space and send a manned mission to Mars. It is screened daily at 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. On days with extended hours, it is also screened at 5:00 p.m. An additional ticket must be purchased to see the film.

The 76^th annual Christmas Around the World and 24^th annual Holidays of Light is ongoing through Sunday, January 6, 2019 (the Feast of Epiphany). The Grand Tree Lighting Ceremony that opened the 2018-2019 Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light festivals at the M.S.I. took place at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 15, 2018. This is chance to explore fifty Christmas trees and holiday displays decorated by local volunteers that represent Chicago’s diverse communities and the traditions they celebrate. Each tree and display, decorated with hand-crafted Christmas tree ornaments that honor customs from around the world, encircle the fifty-five-foot-tall Grant Tree wrapped in 30,000 twinkling lights. Artificial snow also falls indoors in the Grand Rotunda in the Central Pavilion every thirty minutes. Enjoy lively performances from all corners of the globe as groups perform in the M.S.I.’s Main Auditorium inside the West Pavilion.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Time	Event
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Ornament Making
11:00 a.m.	Bonilla Foundation (Puerto Rico)
12:15 p.m.	Alma Ecuatoriana (Ecuador)
1:30 p.m.	Ballet Folklórico Internacional Tuwamari (Ecuador)
2:45 p.m.	Holy Nativity (Romania)
4:00 p.m.	Enemble Hora (Romania)

A full schedule is posted online here and at www.msichicago.org/catw. Check at the Info Desk in Rosenwald Court (North Court) on the Main Floor in the Central Pavilion for last-minute changes. The GATX Corporation is the sponsor of Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light.

The traveling exhibit The Science Behind Pixar, which opened on May 24, 2018, is open through January 6, 2018.[1] This is a chance to learn about the filmmaking process behind Pixar 3D animated movies from Toy Story (1995) to Inside Out (2015). An additional ticket is required.[2]

Figure 1 Credit: Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is the back cover of the 2018 Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light Exhibit Guide.

Figure 2 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is the Apollo 8 Command Module in the Henry Crown Space Center, as seen on Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

Figure 3 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is former astronaut Captain Jim Lovell, Jr. U.S. Navy (Retired) with the Apollo 8 Command Module in the Henry Crown Space Center in 2009.

Figure 4 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the Smart Home from the exhibit Smart Home Green + Wired, which was open from 2008 to 2013, as seen on Thursday, November 15, 2018. It is a three-story modular home designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and All American Homes. The pop-up exhibition “Moon Room 1968” occupies part of the ground floor.

Figure 5 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is view of “Moon Room 1968” that includes the aluminum Christmas tree and a vintage television as well as a sofa and bookcases.

Full Moon Fest, “Moon Room 1968,” and Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light are covered with Museum Entry (general admission). The Webpage for this event is www.msichicago.org/fullmoonfest.

On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, the M.S.I. reverted to regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). The M.S.I. will be closed on 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 on 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 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. Founded by Sears, Roebuck & Company President Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) in 1926, through The Commercial Club of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry opened in three stages between 1933 and 1940. It occupies the Palace of Fine Arts from Chicago’s first World’s Fair, the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893). The address is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

ENDNOTES

[1] The Museum of Science, Boston developed The Science Behind Pixar in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios. BMO Harris Bank is the local sponsor of The Science Behind Pixar.

[2] The exhibit is not included in Museum Entry (general admission) and requires an additional, timed-entry ticket, $14 for adults and senior citizens and $11 for children. For Museum Members, tickets are $7.

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.