“Five Upcoming Fairy Castle Presentations at Public Libraries,” by S.M. O’Connor

Museum of Science and Industry Curator Margaret Schlesinger will be making presentations about Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle at public libraries in five of Chicago’s suburban and exurban communities in the near future. Presentations will last for about one hour, for the most part. These presentations are virtual tours of the Fairy Castle, which has been on display at the Museum of Science and Industry since 1949, give an overview of the conservation it underwent a few years ago, and relate how silent film star Colleen Moore brought the Fairy Castle into existence.

On Thursday, April 11, 2019, she will make the presentation in the Community Room of the Naperville Public Library’s Nichols Library in downtown Naperville, Illinois at 7:00 p.m. This event is called “Colleen Moore’s Enchanted Fairy Castle.” If you have any questions, call Lisa Nielsen at (630) 961-4100 extension 4931.

On Saturday, April 13, 2019, she will make the presentation in the Meeting Room of the Three Rivers Public Library District’s Minooka Branch at 1:00 p.m. Registration is required.

On Sunday, April 14, 2019, she will make the presentation in the Large Meeting Room of the Algonquin Area Public Library District’s Harnish Main Library at 1:00 p.m. This is for library patrons ages ten and older.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, she will make the presentation in the Meeting Room on the 2^nd Floor of the Indian Prairie Public Library at 7:00 p.m. This event is also called “Colleen Moore’s Enchanted Fairy Castle” and is scheduled to last for ninety minutes.

On Saturday, July 20, 2019, she will make the presentation at the Tinley Park Public Library at 11:00 a.m. This is the last confirmed presentation of the year.

Colleen Moore Fairy Castle @ the Museum of Science and Industry — *Colleen Moore Fairy Castle* @ the Museum of Science and Industry

Figure 1 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: This is Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, as seen on May 17, 2014. The nine-square-foot castle has 1,500 miniatures.

Figure 2 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: Former M.S.I. Preparator Mike Cowan and Liparini Restoration Studio conservator Inez Litas work on Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, which is a modular structure with 200 pieces, on October 29, 2013.

The Naperville Public Library’s Nichols Library is in downtown Naperville. The block is bounded by Jefferson Avenue to the north, Webster Street to the east, Jackson Avenue to the south, and Eagle Street to the west. It is across the street (north of Jackson Avenue) from the Naperville Riverwalk along the West Branch of the DuPage River. The address is 200 West Jefferson Avenue, Naperville, Illinois 60540.

The Three Rivers Public Library District’s Minooka Branch stands at the southwest corner of West St. Mary’s Street and Wabena Avenue. It is four blocks west of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and two blocks north of Veterans Park. The address is 109 North Wabena Avenue, Minooka, Illinois 60447.

Algonquin Area Public Library District’s Main Library, also known as the Harnish Main Library, stands at the northeast corner of Ted Spella Community Park. This is in a residential neighborhood west of downtown Algonquin, which is spread out along the banks of the Fox Rver. It is south of Algonquin Road and west of Randall Road. The address is 2600 Harnish Drive, Algonquin, Illinois 60102.

Indian Prairie Public Library stands at the southwest corner of Plainfield Road and Clarendon Hills Road. It is close to two parks, as it is south of Darien Community Park and northeast of the Darien Sportsplex. Further, it is northeast of the Our Lady of Peace parish church and school on Plainfield Road, northwest of Hinsdale South High School on 75^th Street, and southwest of Kingswood Academy on Plainfield Road. The address is 401 Plainfield Road, Darien, Illinois 60561.

Tinley Park Public Library stands northeast of the intersection of 80^th Avenue and 183^rd Street and is west of the Interstate 80 and Interstate 57 interchange. The address is 7851 Timber Drive, Tinley Park, Illinois 60477.

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.