“Museum of Science and Industry to Open Wearable Technology Exhibit” by S.M. O’Connor

Wired to Wear™, presented by BMO, is the newest temporary exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.). Opening on Thursday, March 21, 2019, it will run through spring of next year. Featuring over 100 artifacts from around the world, it is the first-ever exhibit dedicated exclusively to wearable technology. The artifact that will attract the most attention is likely the Jet Suit, which allows the wearer to fly at speeds of up to thirty-two miles per hour at heights of up to 12,000 feet. This exhibit is not covered by Museum Entry and requires a separate, timed-entry ticket.

Another new attraction at the M.S.I. is the Makers United workshop, where each visitor designs a wearable product. This is a chance to learn first-hand about circuit-building and the manufacturing process. It also requires a separate, timed-entry ticket. ArcelorMittol presents the Makers United workshop. The experience is for those ages six and up. [Due to assembly with small parts, it is not appropriate for smaller tykes.] Children ages six-to-twelve must be accompanied by a teenager or adult ages eighteen or over.

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. Until March 22, 2019, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. However, from Saturday, March 23, 2019 through Sunday, March 31, 2019, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., after which it will revert to regular hours. In April, the M.S.I. will be open regular hours with some exceptions. It will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. the weekend of Saturday, April 6, 2019 and Sunday, April 7, 2019 and from Saturday, April 13, 2019 through Saturday, April 20, 2019. [Note that Sunday, April 14, 2019 is Palm Sunday; Friday, April 19, 2019 is Good Friday; and Sunday, April 21, 2019 is Easter Sunday.] In May, regular hours will be in effect except on Saturday, May 25, 2019, when the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, May 26, 2019, when the M.S.I. will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Monday, May 27, 2019 (Memorial Day), when the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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.

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.

I appreciate how The Catlow Movie Theater’s Tudor Revival style of architecture matches the small office building next door.

Woodridge Enshrouded by Fog

“Museum of Science and Industry to Open Wearable Technology Exhibit” by S.M. O’Connor

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