“When are the Remaining 2021 Free Days at the Museum of Science & Industry?”

The remaining Illinois Free Days at the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.), when Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for Illinois residents, are the 22^nd and 23^rd, 29^th and 30^th of September; the 27^th of October; the 3^rd, 10^th, and 17^th of November; and the 8^th of December. Residents of this state must furnish proof of residency. Click here to learn about other free or discounted ticket offers. There is a limit of six children (under eighteen) per adult. Please note, these dates are subject to change. Currently, one cannot visit the M.S.I. on a whim, as one must purchase tickets in advance. Pricing is applied at checkout. Click here to purchase tickets.

Remaining Illinois Free Days in 2021

Month	Date
September	Wednesday, September 22, A.D. 2021 Thursday, September 23, A.D. 2021 Wednesday, 29, A.D. 2021 Thursday, September 30, A.D. 2021
October	Wednesday, October 27, A.D. 2021
November	Wednesday, November 3, A.D. 2021 Wednesday, November 10, A.D. 2021 Wednesday, November 17, A.D. 2021
December	Wednesday, December 8, A.D. 2021

This is a good opportunity for homeschooling families (and retired or semi-retired adults with fixed incomes) to see the traveling exhibit Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes, which required its own separate ticket, more affordably.[1] Obviously, this is also true of other exhibits that require separate tickets, as well as Giant Dome Theater films.

Ticket Prices on Illinois Free Days

Kind of Ticket	Adults	Children (3-11)
Museum Entry (general admission)	Free	Free
Fab Lab (workshops)	$12	$9
Giant Dome Theater (films)	$12	$9
Future Energy Chicago (exhibit)	$12	$9
Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes (traveling exhibit)	$18	$14

Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes is open through Sunday, October 24, A.D. 2021. To enter the exhibit, one must have a separate, timed-entry ticket. Daytime tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for children (ages three-to-eleven), and $9 for Members. There are no weekend daytime timeslots left. Right now, the earliest daytime timeslots left open are today, September 22, A.D. 2021; tomorrow, Thursday, September 23, A.D. 2021; Friday, September 24, A.D. 2021; Tuesday, September 28, A.D. 2021; and Wednesday, September 29, A.D. 2021. Nighttime tickets are available again. If one purchases tickets to see this exhibit, be forewarned the rest of the M.S.I. will be closed. Nighttime tickets are $35 for adults, $20 for children, and $20 for Members. The earliest available nighttime weekday ticket timeslots are on Friday, September 24, A.D. 2021; Friday, October 1, A.D. 2021; Thursday, October 7, A.D. 2021; Friday, October 8, A.D. 2021; and Thursday, October 14, A.D. 2021. The earliest available nighttime weekend timeslots are on Saturday, October 2, A.D. 2021; Sunday, October 3, A.D. 2021; Sunday, October 10, A.D. 2021; and Saturday, October 16, A.D. 2021. Click here to buy tickets.

Currently, the M.S.I. is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. However, on Sunday, September 26, A.D. 2021, the M.S.I. will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday, October 29, A.D. 2021 will be Member Day, which means that the M.S.I. will be open exclusively for Museum Members (from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.). It will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 25, A.D. 2021) and on Christmas Day (Saturday, December 25, A.D. 2021). Masks are required for all visitors ages two-and-over, regardless of vaccination status.

The food court and the coffee shop on the Lower Level (ground floor) in the Central Pavilion’s Lower Court, are closed. The Museum Kitchen will open in 2022. Meanwhile, a new restaurant, the Museum Parke Café, with outdoor seating in Beaver Park (between the Henry Crown Space Center and the East Pavilion), on the Lower Level, is open from 10:30 a.m. until one hour before the M.S.I. closes. Finnigan’s Sandwich Shoppe, off Yesterday’s Main Street, on the Main Level, in the Central Pavilion, is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. until one hour before the M.S.I. closes. Visitors who bring their own lunches can eat them in a tent outside the South Portico (behind the Coal Mine) of the Central Pavilion, in a designated area outside the Ships Gallery, and in the Lower Court.

The address of the M.S.I. is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

$5 Per Month IN THE GARDEN CITY Subscription Plan

$50 Per Year IN THE GARDEN Subscription Plan

[1] Homeschooling families and homeschooling groups can get free Museum Entry for field trips just like schools. [Please note, however, the M.S.I. has suspended registration for field trips and other groups until further notice. Illinois schools can click here and fill out a form to be notified when field trip registration is open again.] Illinois homeschooling families and homeschooling groups can click here or call (773) 684-1414 to register to get free Museum Entry tickets and discounted tickets for special exhibits and to see films in the Giant Dome Theater. Homeschooling families and homeschooling groups must register at least twenty-four hours in advance. They can also register for specially scheduled Learning Labs. For Learning Labs, be prepared to pay $20 in advance for each student. The M.S.I. will call the homeschooling family or group in question two business days before the planned trip to confirm the request had been honored. The tickets will then be available at Will Call in the Entry Hall. Payments for special activities, including tours, admittance to temporary or touring exhibits, and films in the Giant Dome Theater must be made with credit cards in advance.

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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.