“When is the Spooky Science Event at the Museum of Science & Industry?” by S.M. O’Connor

Members of the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry,[1] which I will continue to abbreviate as M.S.I., can take their kids trick-or-treating early, on Saturday, October 26, 2019. The M.S.I. stated the “Spooky Science” event will involve “spine-tingling science demonstrations, ghoulish games, spooky crafts for the whole family and seasonal snacks.” There will be trick-or-treat stop with each activity.

“Spooky Science” will be held on the Main Level in the West Pavilion from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for children. One must register in advance. The admittance number for Members will be strictly enforced. Click here to become a Member.

Other Upcoming Events

To help celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Elements, the (M.S.I.) will host the Periodic Table Dinner at The Promontory [2] Thursday, October 10, 2019 from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., as I wrote about yesterday. One must make reservations online and one must do so in advance. Reservations are offered on a first come, first served basis. Click here to make reservations via RESY. The three-course prix fixe menu costs $50 per person. [A vegetarian entrée will be an option.] Additional drink packages will be offered. Tax and tip are not included. The Promontory is on the west side of Lake Park Avenue, south of 53^rd Street, and north of 54^th Street in the Hyde Park Community Area (Community Area #41) on the South Side of Chicago. The address is 5311 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60615.

The sixth annual Science Works S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career celebration at the M.S.I. will be on Saturday, October 19, 2019, as I wrote about last Saturday. Engineers, neuroscientists, a veterinarian, and app designers will be on hand. Science Works, sponsored by BP, is included with Museum Entry tickets.

The next two Illinois Free Days at the M.S.I. are Tuesday, October 29, 2019 and Monday, November 18, 2019. Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for Illinois residents on Illinois Free Days. One must furnish proof of residency.

The M.S.I. 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. 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). Throughout the whole of October, it will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., except today, Saturday, October 5, 2019, when it will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. because of the annual Columbian Ball being held tonight.

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] As I wrote about last Friday, the M.S.I. announced on Thursday, October 3, 2019 that the Board of Trustees had voted to accept a $125,000,000 gift from the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund. M.S.I. executives and board members felt it would consequently be appropriate to change the M.S.I.’s name to the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. A multi-billionaire, Mr. Griffin is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) of Citadel, Inc., a Chicago-based hedge fund. His gift is the largest in the history of the science and technology museum, and one of the largest gifts to any cultural institution in Chicago.

[2] Located on Lake Park Avenue, which is the main street in Hyde Park, The Promontory’s name is an allusion to Promontory Point. This is a manmade peninsula at the southeastern-most tip of the Chicago Park District’s 653.63-acre Burnham Park, which lies along the lakeshore from a point to the east of Grant Park downtown until it connects with Jackson Park at 57^th Street in Hyde Park. Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), who is best remembered for the design of what is now called the Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool in Lincoln Park, designed the landscape of Promontory Point. The Promontory Point Field House strongly resembles a lighthouse and is a popular venue for private events.

$5.00 Per Month IN THE GARDEN CITY Subscription Plan

$50.00 Per Year IN THE GARDEN CITY Subscription Plan

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.