“When are the Shedd Aquarium’s Free Days in September?” by S.M. O’Connor

In the late summer and autumn of this year, there will be fifteen Illinois Resident Free Days at the John G. Shedd Aquarium on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 and Wednesday, September 4, 2019; Monday, September 9, 2019 through Wednesday, September 11, 2019; Monday, September 16, 2019 through Wednesday, September 18, 2019; Monday, September 23, 2019 through Wednesday, September 25, 2019; Monday, September 30, 2019; Tuesday, October 1, 2019 and Wednesday, October 2, 2019; and Wednesday, December 4, 2019. The people who benefit the most from these free days will be families with children too young to be in school, home-schooling families, and adults who are retired, semi-retired, self-employed, or with open schedules. The Ford Motor Company Fund sponsors Illinois Resident Free Days. Earlier this week, I wrote about Illinois Free Days at the Museum of Science and Industry next month and thirty-three other institutions across Illinois that are participating in Smithsonian Magazine’s 2019 Museum Day®.

Remaining Illinois Resident Free Days at the John G. Shedd Aquarium

September

3^rd and 4^th

9^th through 11^th

16^th through 18^th

23^rd through 25^th

30^th

October

1^st and 2^nd

December

4^th

On these days, all adult Illinois residents (eighteen-years-of-age-and-up) must present valid identification with an Illinois address to receive free admission. Children do not need to furnish proof of residency if they are accompanied by adults with valid identification. Current university or college identification cards are valid proof of residency for students living in Chicago or anywhere else in Illinois. If a resident’s photo identification card does not list an address, one must furnish secondary documentation such as a utility bill, a bank statement, a lease, a recent paystub, or any other official documentation that lists one’s full name and an address in Illinois.

One can reserve these free tickets online by clicking here, but be forewarned there is a $3 transaction fee. Free tickets cover the whole aquarium, including all exhibits, aquatic presentations (subject to availability), and Stingray Touch! (from late May to Labor Day weekend). Pick up tickets at a North Lobby kiosk in front of the Soundings Café. One can add the 4-D Experience to the visit by paying $4.95 per person ($2.95 for Members).

The Shedd Aquarium is a Smithsonian Affiliate. It is located on the Museum Campus in the Chicago Park District’s Burnham Park. Normally, the Shedd Aquarium is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the workweek (Mondays through Fridays) and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). Click here for updates on hours. The last ticket sale is forty-five minutes before closing.

The address is 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. The Website is https://www.sheddaquarium.org. The phone number is (312) 939-2438.

Figure 1 Credit: Anthony, Adobe Stock Caption: The Shedd Aquarium is visible in the bottom left-hand corner in this cityscape picture, while the Sears Tower is visible in the top left-hand corner, the red CNA Center is to the left of center, Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) is roughly at the center, and the John Hancock Center is on the right. This picture was taken on January 17, 2016.

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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.