Visiting Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History
Today the Field Museum is an educational institution concerned with the diversity and relationships in nature and among cultures. Explore the museum’s vast collections as you roam the many galleries and learn to appreciate the world in which we live during your time at Chicago’s Field Museum.
Field Museum Exhibits
Holding the answers to fundamental questions about our planet, its life and cultures, over 25 million objects make up the museum’s collections throughout its many exhibits.
Abbott Hall of Conservation: Restoring Earth
Travel with scientists by boat or helicopter to remote locations to protect huge tracts of wilderness or journey to the depths of lush Peruvian forests and discover rare and remarkable living treasures. The Abbott Hall of Conservation: Restoring Earth displays the many ways in which the Field Museum is leading the way in conservation.
Sue the T. rex
Measuring in at 42 feet long from snout to tail, Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex is known worldwide as the largest, best-preserved and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Marvel at her size, examine her original skull from all sides and discover the facts, theories and speculations about the magnificent creature.
Inside Ancient Egypt
Examine floor-to-ceiling hieroglyphs portraying the offerings to sustain a person’s spirit for eternity. Discover one of the largest collections of mummies found in any U.S, museum. Visit an ancient Egyptian marketplace filled with ceramics, jewelry, games and other ancient Egyptian artifacts. Inside Ancient Egypt demonstrates how Egyptian customs give clues to their lives on Earth and to what ancient Egyptians might have had in common with the people of today.
Evolving Planet
Evolving Planet presents natural history scientists’ views on the origin and early evolution of human life. Journey through the past as you explore unique fossils, animated videos, interactive displays and recreated sea-and landscapes that all share the story of evolution.
Underground Adventure
Meet a giant wolf spider. Observe the different approaches invertebrates take raising their young. Gain perspective on how plant roots, seeds and fungus find nourishment from the soil. Underground Adventure reveals soil to be home to an incredible diversity of living things and demonstrates how not one single plant or animal could survive without it.
The Ancient Americas
Walk through a replica of an 800-year-old pueblo. Explore the Aztecs history, heritage and culture. Step into the world of Ice Age mammoth hunters. The Ancient Americas exhibit will take you on a journey through 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievements in the Western Hemisphere.
Hall of Jades
Featuring over 450 objects, Hall of Jades is a stunning exhibit that allows you to journey through China’s past from prehistoric burials through its two thousand years as the world’s most enduring empire.
Maori Meeting House, Ruatepupuke II
The Maori Meeting House is a spiritual outpost for sharing the Maori people of New Zealand’s heritage, history and culture. Originally built on Tokomaru Bay in 1881, its one of the only three such buildings that can be found outside of New Zealand.
Pacific Spirits
Boasting one of the best collections of Melanesian treasures, the Pacific Spirits exhibit takes you halfway around the world and 100 years into the past to witness sacred customs that once thrived in the region. Admire ceremonial masks. Play wooden slit drums. Get a glimpse inside a traditional Men’s House, once the ceremonial center of a Melanesia village.
Grainger Hall of Gems
See the natural beauty and magical transformation of the Earth’s gems. Grainger Hall of Gems features rare jewels and gold objects from around the world and creations by some of the world’s top designers. It’s the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind.
Traveling the Pacific
Visit a recreated Tahitian marketplace; examine an outrigger canoe that once skimmed the waves among the Marshall Islands; or explore the roles of men and women in New Guinea in the early 1900s. Traveling the Pacific is an exhibit that takes a look at the intersection between geography and culture that shapes life on the Pacific Islands to this day.
Africa
From the scene of a holy day in the capital city of Senegal to a research station on the Great Rift Valley, the Africa exhibit samples the many cultures and environments of the vast and varied African continent.
DNA Discovery Center
Talk to scientists every weekday from 11 am until noon and get answers to your basic and complex questions about DNA and how DNA research is changing what we know about life on Earth in the DNA Discovery Center.
McDonald’s Fossil Prep Lab
Get a behind-the-scenes look at scientists at work in the McDonald’s Fossil Prep Lab, featuring microscopes, mini-jackhammers, mini-circular saws; and watch them shoot baking soda that is strong enough to whittle away rock, but soft enough not to damage precious fossils.
Don’t forget to stop by the Field Store. With a vast collection of gifts including unique jewelry, Egyptian treasures, stuffed Tyrannosaurus rex and much more, you’ll find the perfect keepsake to remember your time at Field Museum, or something special for a loved one.