“When is the Adler Planetarium Free for Illinois Residents in 2020?”

The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum has Illinois Resident Discount Days from the 7^th to the 9^th and from the 20^th to the 22^nd of January; from the 4^th to the 6^th, from the 11^th to the 13^th, and from the 17^th to the 20^th of February; from the 9^th to the 12^th of March; from the 20^th to the 23^rd of April; from the 10^th to the 16^th of May; on the 2^nd, 9^th, and 16^th of June; on the 22^nd, 23^rd, and 31^stof August; from the 1^st to the 4^th of September; from the 12^th to the 15^th of October; on the 11^th of November, and from the 17^th to the 19^th of November; and from the 2^nd to the 4^th of December. On these days, Illinois residents receive free admission to the Museum. Note this does not include the famous Atwood Sphere or sky shows. Illinois residents can upgrade to Museum Entry + 2 pass that covers the Atwood Sphere Experience and sky shows at a discounted price. This is an opportunity for families with preschool-aged children, homeschooling families, and adults with open schedules. Please note that Monday, January 20, A.D. 2020 is Martin Luther King, Junior Day, which all schoolchildren have off, so if either parent (or perhaps a grandparent or uncle or aunt) also has the day off, a trip to the Adler Planetarium may be a good way to spend the civic holiday.

ILLINOIS RESIDENT DISCOUNT DAYS IN 2020

Month	Date
January	Tuesday, January 7, 2020 Wednesday, January 8, 2020 Thursday, January 9, 2020 Monday, January 20, 2020 Tuesday, January 21, 2020 Wednesday, January 22, 2020
February	Tuesday, February 4, 2020 Wednesday, February 5, 2020 Thursday, February 6, 2020 Tuesday, February 11, 2020 Wednesday, February 12, 2020 Thursday, February 13, 2020 Monday, February 17, 2020 Tuesday, February 18, 2020 Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Thursday, February 20, 2020
March	Monday, March 9, 2020 Tuesday, March 10, 2020 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Thursday, March 12, 2020
April	Monday, April 20, 2020 Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Thursday, April 23, 2020
May	Sunday, May 10, 2020 Monday, May 11, 2020 Tuesday, May 12, 2020 Wednesday, May 13, 2020 Thursday, May 14, 2020 Friday, May 15, 2020 Saturday, May 16, 2020
June	Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Tuesday, June 16, 2020
July	None
August	Saturday, August 22, 2020 Sunday, August 23, 2020 Monday, August 31, 2020
September	Tuesday, September 1, 2020 Wednesday, September 2, 2020 Thursday, September 3, 2020 Friday, September 4, 2020
October	Monday, October 12, 2020 Tuesday, October 13, 2020 Wednesday, October 14, 2020 Thursday, October 15, 2020
November	Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Tuesday, November 17, 2020 Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Thursday, November 19, 2020
December	Friday, December 4, 2020 Saturday, December 5, 2020 Sunday, December 6, 2020

To enjoy the benefit of this discount, one must present a valid ID with an Illinois address at the box office. Dates are subject to change. Check here for updates.

Every Day Discounts

The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum is a Blue Star Museum. Thus, active-duty military personnel and veterans receive up to five free Museum Entry admission passes (adults or children) with identification.

Students and senior citizens (society-five-and-over) who present a valid ID can receive $2 off admission. Chicago residents who furnish proof of residency can receive $2 off all admission passes ($3 for children ages three-to-eleven). Illinois teachers (preschool through 12^th Grade), police, and firefighters receive free Museum Entry if they furnish valid identification at the box office. Note that Every Day Discounts are only available in person at the box office and cannot be combined.

About the Adler Planetarium

The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum is located at the northeastern corner of Northerly Island, which is really a peninsula.[1] Northerly Island is part of the Chicago Park District’s Burnham Park. The Field Museum of Natural History, the John G. Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum comprise the Museum Campus at the northern end of Burnham Park, east of Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Soldier Field and the Lakeside Center of McCormick Placeare immediately south of the Museum Campus.[2]

This time of year, the Adler Planetarium is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for Spring Break from Monday, March 23, 2020 through Saturday, April 18, 2020. Summer Hours, also 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., will be in effect between the two civic holidays of Memorial Day (Monday, May 25, 2020) and Labor Day (Monday, September 7, 2020). The Adler Planetarium will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 26, 2020) and Christmas Day (Friday, December 25, 2020). It will again be open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during “Winter Break” from Saturday, December 26, 2020 (the 2^nd Day of Christmas) through Thursday, December 31, 2020 (the 7^th Day of Christmas and New Year’s Eve).

The address is 1300 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. The phone number is (312) 922-7827. The Website U.R.L. is https://www.adlerplanetarium.org.

$5.00 Per Month IN THE GARDEN CITY Subscription Plan

$50.00 Per Year IN THE GARDEN CITY Subscription Plan

ENDNOTES

[1] It is the only island from a chain of artificial islands Daniel Hudson Burnham, Senior (1846-1912) and Edward H. Bennett (1874-1954) called for in the Plan of Chicago.

[2] The Arie Crown Theater is inside the Lakeside Center.

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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.