“When is the Museum of Science & Industry’s Adults-Only Night Event in September?” by S.M. O’Connor

“MSI After Hours: Field Trip,” the adults-only night event at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, will be Friday, September 20, 2019 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. One must be an adult twenty-one-years-of-age or over to attend this event.

Comedians from iO Chicago (originally known as ImprovOlympic), an improvised comedy theater and school, will be performing skits based on stories from the M.S.I. staff. Tickets cover parking in the underground garage, a complimentary drink, light snacks, and access to select exhibits, including Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, the Chick Hatchery, and the U-505. There will also be a cash bar.

A ticket costs $30. Click here to purchase tickets. If one has a question, one should e-mail msiafterhours@msichicago.org.

Next month, there will be fifteen Illinois Free Days at the M.S.I. On Illinois Free Days, Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for all Illinois residents who show valid proof of residence such as a driver’s license or state identification card. No further Chicago residence discounts apply on Illinois Free Days.[1] As I wrote about yesterday, in September of 2019, the Illinois Free Days are the 3^rd through the 5^th, the 9^th through the 12^th, the 16^th through the 19^th, and the 23^rd through the 26^th. This schedule is subject to change.

On most days, the Museum of Science and Industry 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. Regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) resumed at the M.S.I. The institution 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, August 31, 2019
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Sunday, September 1, 2019 Monday, September 2, 2019 Tuesday, March 26, 2019 Wednesday, March 27, 2019 Thursday, March 28, 2019 Friday, March 29, 2019 Saturday, March 30, 2019 Sunday, March 31, 2019
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Sunday, September 29, 2019
9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Saturday, October 5, 2019
Closed	Thursday, November 28, 2019 (Thanksgiving Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Friday, November 29, 2019 Saturday, November 30, 2019 Sunday, December 1, 2019 Saturday, December 7, 2019 Sunday, December 8, 2019 Saturday, December 14, 2019 Sunday, December 15, 2019 Saturday, December 21, 2019 Sunday, December 22, 2019 Monday, December 23, 2019
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Tuesday, December 24, 2019 (Christmas Eve) Tuesday, December 31, 2019 (New Year’s Eve)
Closed	Wednesday, December 25, 2019 (Christmas Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Thursday, December 26, 2019 Friday, December 27, 2019 Saturday, December 28, 2019 Sunday, December 29, 2019 Monday, December 30, 2019
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Wednesday, January 1, 2020 (New Year’s Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Thursday, January 2, 2020 Friday, January 3, 2020

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. 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 M.S.I. is open every day of the year with two exceptions: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

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ENDNOTE

[1] On Wednesday, I wrote about thirty-three other institutions across Illinois that are participating in Smithsonian Magazine’s 2019 Museum Day®, and thus one need only download a Museum Day® ticket to get free general admission for two on Saturday, September 21, 2019.

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.