Results tagged “fieldmuseum”

If you've been to the Field Museum in the last 80 years or so, you've surely gazed on the snarling, terror-inducing visage of the Man-eating Lions of Tsavo. Reportedly responsible for 135 human deaths in Kenya while a railroad was being constructed in 1898; British engineer, hunter and probable all-around lady-slayer John Patterson killed the cats and sold the pelts to the Field for $5k. And now, a new study says that these wildcats were really a couple of pussy cats. (Comparatively.)

The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder... so cold, in fact, that a woolly mammoth will soon be calling Chicago its temporary home. The best-preserved baby woolly mammoth ever found, named Lyuba, will be on exhibit beginning in March at The Field Museum. It will be the first time Lyuba has been shown in the U.S. since its discovery in 2007.

A new study shows that Sue, the Field Museum's mighty T-Rex, may have been felled by something not so mighty, more War of the Worlds than Jurrasic Park: a parasite. The Tribune fills us in on the details, deduced from holes in Sue's jaws.

You love elephants, don't you? Who doesn't? Tuesday was Elephant Appreciation Day and the Field Museum is celebrating by performing a vacuum cleaning of the museum's famed fighting elephants on display in the main hall. The two fighting African elephants have been on display since 1909 when The Field Museum was located in Jackson Park. They were collected and mounted by Carl E. Akeley, who also revolutionized the art of taxidermy. But get there early if you want to get in on the action because it starts shortly after the museum opens at 9 a.m.

              

Saturday was "Talk Like A Pirate Day" and the Field Museum celebrated with festivities for the youngsters in an effort to show them the Pirate Way and to help promote their Real Pirates exhibit, closing soon (so get ye to the Field Museum).

It's Thursday which means it's time to start planning for the weekend. And not just for you, but for the entire family. Luckily for you, Saturday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. And luckily for you, the Field Museum - who has a thing for pirates - is all over it. There will be treasure hunts, sword-fights by Lifeline Theater’s Treasure Island cast members, an appearance by Navy Pier’s mascot Patch the Pirate Dog, and crafts for the kids. The fun runs from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

The struggle for African-American civil rights is full of dramatic stories. Bravery, violence, hatred and hope; all of these are part of the complex and interesting tale of the movement. Sadly, for many the exposure to these stories is limited to a half-remembered week of high school history class, or a few dusty books sitting on shelves. Thanks to the Field Museum’s amazing exhibit, “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement 1956-1968,” visitors have a chance to understand this struggle in an entirely different and much more visceral way.

It all started in November 2007 with this picture on Flickr. Then it popped up here a year ago. Now, suddenly, in the wake of the pop singer's death, it's becoming a phenomenon. Does a Field Museum mummy really look like latter day Michael Jackson? Well...yes. Yes it does. The Sun-Times' Michael Sneed has more on the bust - carved sometime between 1550 BC and 1050 BC. One correction, though, in regards to perhaps the biggest conversation piece of this striking similarity: the nose. Everyone knows of Michael's shape-shifting nose as a result of multiple plastic surgeries. But what about the bust's nose? Sneed says:

Yesterday we got a sneak peak at the Field Museum's latest addition: a 3D movie theater. Wearing the requisite glasses, we saw Dinosaurs Alive!, an educational film about bones more than dinosaurs. The film shows how bones are found, who looks for bones and, best of all, what the dinosaurs and their environs looked like.

  

We're serious about our sports teams here in Chicago and with both the Bulls and Blackhawks battling in the postseason, we're not the only ones following the action. The Field Museum is showing their love for our playoff players as well. According to the Field: "The Chicago Blackhawks jersey will now be on the Museum’s Dissemination of Knowledge statue, an nine-foot high figure of a woman reading to a baby, located in the northeast corner of Stanley Field Hall. The baby will be dressed as the Blackhawks fan. The Chicago Bulls jersey will now adorn the Museum’s Pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling of Stanley Field Hall outside of our Evolving Planet exhibition."

Employees at the Field Museum had one of "those mornings" last Friday. A museum alarm went off around 5 a.m. Friday morning, alerting workers that there was a leak in the roof in a large storage room on the third floor that houses around 25,000 artifacts. The cause of the leak was a broken drainage pipe and workers moved quickly to relocate around 200 artifacts that had already gotten wet. Lance Grande, a senior vice president of the museum, confirmed that three of the artifacts were damaged but that they would be restored later this week. The museum hopes to have the pipe repaired by tomorrow. [Tribune, ABC 7]

Today, CNN featured The Field Museum as one of the "Five Museums You and Your Kids Will Enjoy." What did the House of Anderson have to say about the Field?

What happens when a dinosaur gets mounted in a museum? Well, it gets taken out of the ground, cleaned with brushes and dental drills, inventoried and arranged. Fiberglass molds are made, it gets fitted with metal rods for support and, eventually, it’s put on public display with great fanfare and probably some wine and cheese. But then what? It sits there. For years and years and years.

              

In 1984, underwater explorer Barry Clifford made one whale of a discovery off the coast of Cape Cod: the remains of the Whydah, the first fully-authenticated pirate ship discovered in American waters. Now, 25 years later, Clifford, along with National Geographic and AEG Live, is bringing his discovery to the Field Museum in their newest exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.

    

Last October, The Aztec World opened at the Field Museum. The exhibit focuses on the daily lives of the Aztecs, as well as the development of their civilization and culture. To tie in with the theme of “everyday life,” the Field Museum has teamed up with 16 Chicago-area restaurants, including Adobo Grill, Cuatro, Cafe Ba Ba Reeba and Zapatista, to bring some dishes inspired by the ancient Aztecs to life. The Taste of the Aztec World starts on Sunday, January 11th and runs through January 17th.

Through April 19, the Field Museum is hosting The Aztec World: an exhibition of more than 300 artifacts and artworks made during the reign of the folks known for their ingenuity in science, architecture and penchant for ripping each others' hearts out during sacrificial rituals (different strokes, etc.). The show features pieces never before displayed in the U.S. (and won't be traveling anywhere else, so be proud, Chicago!). Recently we spoke with Franck Mercurio, an exhibition content developer at the museum, about how this major show came to be.

“Most of my assignments started in the kitchen. It’s where people like to talk. Then I find out who they really are.” - Penny de los Santos

The trickle of local job eliminations has now become a steady stream. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. announced yesterday that cost-cutting measures will result in 55 jobs being cut at the Chicago division of offices. Museums are fighting to keep their heads above water as well; the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum has already cut 16 percent of its staff after the first two months of the fiscal year saw a 45 percent drop in income, and the Field Museum has eliminated five positions.

The Field Museum has been on a roll lately with their temporary exhibits. First it was Mythical Creatures, which blew us away with its artist interpretations of our favorite monsters and legends. And Friday the Field will open Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters. In the wake of the Myanmar Cyclone and the China earthquake, this exhibit definitely has our attention.

If you, like us, were wondering what was going to happen to Roscoe Mellencamp's remains after his necropsy, wonder no more: The cougar killed in Roscoe Village has his final resting place at the Field Museum. The museum's famed mammal collection, which includes around 200,000 other specimens, now includes the bones and fur pelt of one more deceased big cat.

immediately evokes pained memories of boring school trips and long bus rides. For others, it reminds them of good times, peaceful rainy days spent inside gazing at beautiful jewels or incredible dioramas. We stand with the latter group, and so we were excited to find that the Field Museum has a free, podcast-based Audio Tour.

"Museum of Modern Ice", was officially unveiled in Millenium Park Friday. Canadian artist Gordon Halloran, who started as an abstract painter, created the work out of large pieces of colorful ice, and according to the Sun-Times, "he and a team of six have been working 12 to 14 hours a day since mid-December to ensure the project is complete [in time for its] unveiling." The exhibit stays up through the end of February.

Alas, Hansel, the 53-year-old male hippo at the Brookfield Zoo was euthanized yesterday after his caretakers decided his arthritis was so severe that it was ruining his quality of life. Hansel had been at the zoo for 51 years, after moving here with his sidekick Gretel--really--from Denmark. The two had six hippo kids, and one of their daughters, 39-year-old Wicket, is still at Brookfield.

Busy day for local museums: the Field Museum is raising its admissions prices, and the Shedd Aquarium is looking to expand its office space. Adler Planetarium? Anything? No? Shedd officials say their 300 employees are cramped, thus an additional 24,000 square feet of workspace, plus "a ground level terrace on the north side of the structure, build another elevator and upgrade its food-service kitchen." The proposed addition apparently wouldn't really affect how the Oceanarium...