Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
Encyclopedia
The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) is located in Chicago
, Illinois
, USA in Jackson Park
, in the Hyde Park
neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan
. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
. Initially endowed by Sears, Roebuck and Company
president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald
, it first opened in 1933 during the Century of Progress Exposition
. It is also the largest science museum in the western hemisphere.
Among its diverse and expansive exhibits, the Museum features a working coal mine
, a German submarine
(U-505) captured during World War II
, a 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) model railroad, the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train (Pioneer Zephyr
), and the Apollo 8
spacecraft which flew the first humans to the Moon.
Based on 2009 attendance, the Museum of Science and Industry was the third largest cultural attraction in Chicago. David R. Mosena has been President and CEO of the Museum since 1998.
was designed by Charles B. Atwood
. Unlike the other "White City" buildings, it was constructed with a brick substructure under its plaster facade. After the World's Fair, it initially housed the Columbian Museum, which evolved into the Field Museum of Natural History
. When a new Field Museum building opened near downtown Chicago in 1920, the museum organization moved and the former site was left vacant.
Art Institute of Chicago
professor Lorado Taft
led a public campaign to restore the building and turn it into another art museum, one devoted to sculpture. The South Park Commissioners (now part of the Chicago Park District
) won approval in a referendum to sell $5 million in bonds to pay for restoration costs, hoping to turn the building into a sculpture museum, a technical trade school, and other things. However, after a few years, the building was selected as the site for a new science museum.
At this time, the Commercial Club of Chicago
was interested in establishing a science museum in Chicago. Sears, Roebuck and Company
president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald energized his fellow club members by pledging to pay $3 million towards the cost of converting the Palace of Fine Arts (Rosenwald eventually contributed more than $5 million to the project). During its conversion into the MSI, the building's exterior was re-cast in limestone, retaining its 1893 Beaux Arts look, while the interior was replaced with a new one in Art Moderne style designed by Alfred P. Shaw.
Rosenwald established the museum organization in 1926 and insisted that his name not appear on the building, but nonetheless, for the first few years of the museum's existence, it was known as the Rosenwald Industrial Museum. In 1928, the name of the museum was changed to the Museum of Science and Industry. Rosenwald's vision was to create an interactive museum in the style of the Deutsches Museum
in Munich
, a museum he visited in 1911 when he was in Germany
on vacation with his family.
The museum conducted a nationwide search to find its first director. In the end, MSI's Board of Directors selected Waldemar Kaempffert
because he shared Julius Rosenwald's vision. Kaempffert was the science editor for The New York Times
. He assembled the museum's first curatorial staff and began organizing and constructing the exhibits. In order to design and prepare the museum, Kaempffert and his staff visited the Deutsches Museum in Munich
, the Science Museum
in Kensington
, and the Technical Museum
in Vienna
, all of which served as models for the MSI. Kaempffert was also instrumental in developing close ties with the science departments of the University of Chicago
which supplied much of the scholarship for the exhibits. Kaempffert resigned in early 1931 amid growing disputes with the second president of the board of directors over the objectivity and neutrality of the exhibits and his management of the staff.
The new Museum of Science and Industry opened to the public in three stages between 1933 and 1940. The first opening ceremony took place during the Century of Progress Exposition
. Two of the Museum's presidents, a number of curators and other staff members, and exhibits came to MSI from the Century of Progress event.
For years visitors entered the museum through its original main entrance. However, it proved too small to handle a large number of people. The new main entrance is a structure detached from the main museum building, through which visitors descend into an underground area then re-ascend into the main building, in a way similar to the Louvre Pyramid
.
The Museum has over 2,000 exhibits, displayed in 75 major halls. The Museum has several major permanent exhibits. The Coal Mine re-creates a working deep shaft bituminous coal mine inside the Museum's Central Pavilion using original equipment from Old Ben #17 circa 1933. Since 1954, the Museum has had the U-505 Submarine, one of just two German submarines captured during World War II
, and the only captured one now on display in the Western Hemisphere. In 2004, the Museum opened a pit in the front lawn in front of the East Pavilion that would later become the subterranean McCormick
Tribune
Foundation Exhibition Hall, brought the U-505 out from behind the East Pavilion, and lowered the U-505 inside, opening The New U-505 Experience on June 5, 2005. Take Flight recreates a San Francisco to Chicago flight using a real Boeing 727
jet plane donated by United Airlines
. Silent film star and stock market investor Colleen Moore
's Fairy Castle is on display, as is The Great Train Story
, a 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) model railroad that explains the story of transportation from Seattle to Chicago
. The Transportation Zone includes exhibits on air and land transportation, including the 999 Empire State Express steam locomotive, the first vehicle ever to exceed 100 mph. The Transportation Zone also features two World War II
warplanes donated by the British government, a Ju 87 R-2/Trop. Stuka divebomber — one of only two intact Stukas left in the world — and a Supermarine Spitfire
. The first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel train, the Pioneer Zephyr
, is on permanent display in the Great Hall, renamed the Entry Hall in 2008, and a free tour goes through it every 10–20 minutes. Several U.S. Navy warship models are on display. There is a flight simulator for the new F-35 Lightning II
.
In keeping with Rosenwald's vision, many of the exhibits are interactive, ranging from Genetics: Decoding Life, which looks at how genetics affect human and animal development, to ToyMaker 3000, a working assembly line that lets visitors order a toy top and watch as it is made. There is also an interactive Fab Lab MSI
, which is intended to be an interactive lab where members can "build anything".
In March 2010, the museum opened Science Storms in the Allstate
Court. This multilevel exhibit features a 40 feet (12.2 m) water vapor tornado, tsunami tank, Tesla coil
, heliostat
system, and an authentic Wimshurst machine
built by James Wimshurst
in the late 19th century. All artifacts allow guests to explore the physics and chemistry of the natural world around them.
MSI's Henry Crown Space Center includes the Apollo 8
spacecraft which flew the first mission beyond low earth orbit to the Moon, enabling its crew, Frank Borman
, James Lovell
and William Anders
to become the first ever human beings to see the Earth as a whole, as well as becoming the first to view the Moon upclose (as well as the first to view its farside at all). Other exhibits include an OmniMax theater, Scott Carpenter
's Mercury Atlas 7 spacecraft, a Lunar Module trainer and a life-size mockup of a space shuttle
.
The Museum is known for unique and quirky permanent exhibits, such as a walk-through model of the human heart
, which was removed in 2008 for the construction of YOU! the Experience, which opened October 8, 2009, and replaced with a 13 feet (4 m) interactive 3D heart. Also well known are the Body Slices [two cadavers exhibited in 1/2 in slices] currently on display - in part - in YOU! the Experience. You! the Experience also features Gunther von Hagens
plastinates.
Due to its age and design, the Museum's building itself has become a museum piece.
Other exhibits include Yesterday's Mainstreet; a mock-up of a Chicago street from the early 20th century complete with a cobblestone
road, old-fashioned light fixtures, fire hydrants, and several shops, including the precursors to several Chicago-based businesses. Included are:
Unlike the other shops, both Finnigan's Ice Cream Parlor and The Nickelodeon Cinema can be entered and are functional businesses. Finnigan's serves an assortment of flavors and varieties of ice cream and The Nickelodeon Cinema plays short silent films throughout the day. Another important aspect to Yesterday's Main Street is the air conditioning that is blown through the exhibit to create the sensation of a cool fall evening.
In 1993, the F-104 Starfighter
on loan to MSI from the U.S. Air Force since 1978, was sent to the Mid-America Air Museum
in Liberal, Kansas
.
In March 1995 the Santa Fe Steam Locomotive 2903 was moved from outside the museum to the Illinois Railway Museum
.
The museum is home to the Junior Achievement's U.S. Business Hall of Fame.
, a view into the human body through use of plastinated
human specimens, in 2005; and Leonardo Da Vinci
: Man, Inventor, Genius in the summer of 2006. Past temporary exhibitions included CSI: The Experience
, Robots Like Us, City of the Future, Canstruction and Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination
,and The Glass Experience. Harry Potter: The Exhibition opened on April 30, 2009, and left the museum on September 29, 2009. The fourth installment of Smart Home: Green + Wired reopened in March 2011 and runs through January 2012, featuring the work of green architect Michelle Kaufmann
.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, USA in Jackson Park
Jackson Park (Chicago)
Jackson Park is a 500 acre park on Chicago's South Side, located at 6401 South Stony Island Avenue in the Woodlawn community area. It extends into the South Shore and Hyde Park community areas, bordering Lake Michigan and several South Side neighborhoods...
, in the Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
. Initially endowed by Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald was a U.S. clothier, manufacturer, business executive, and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund which donated millions to support the education of African American children in the rural South, as well...
, it first opened in 1933 during the Century of Progress Exposition
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
. It is also the largest science museum in the western hemisphere.
Among its diverse and expansive exhibits, the Museum features a working coal mine
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, a German submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
(U-505) captured during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) model railroad, the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train (Pioneer Zephyr
Pioneer Zephyr
The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , commonly known as the Burlington...
), and the Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
spacecraft which flew the first humans to the Moon.
Based on 2009 attendance, the Museum of Science and Industry was the third largest cultural attraction in Chicago. David R. Mosena has been President and CEO of the Museum since 1998.
History
The Palace of Fine Arts (also known as the Fine Arts Building) at the 1893 World's Columbian ExpositionWorld's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
was designed by Charles B. Atwood
Charles B. Atwood
Charles B. Atwood was an architect who designed several buildings and a large number of secondary structures for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He also designed a number of notable buildings in the city of Chicago....
. Unlike the other "White City" buildings, it was constructed with a brick substructure under its plaster facade. After the World's Fair, it initially housed the Columbian Museum, which evolved into the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
. When a new Field Museum building opened near downtown Chicago in 1920, the museum organization moved and the former site was left vacant.
Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
professor Lorado Taft
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadoc Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.-Early years and education:...
led a public campaign to restore the building and turn it into another art museum, one devoted to sculpture. The South Park Commissioners (now part of the Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
) won approval in a referendum to sell $5 million in bonds to pay for restoration costs, hoping to turn the building into a sculpture museum, a technical trade school, and other things. However, after a few years, the building was selected as the site for a new science museum.
At this time, the Commercial Club of Chicago
Commercial Club of Chicago
The Commercial Club of Chicago is an anti-labor club resulted from the 1907 merger of two predecessor Chicago clubs: the Merchants Club and the Commercial Club . Its most active members included George Pullman, Marshall Field, Cyrus McCormick, George Armour, Frederic Delano, Sewell Avery, Rufus...
was interested in establishing a science museum in Chicago. Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald energized his fellow club members by pledging to pay $3 million towards the cost of converting the Palace of Fine Arts (Rosenwald eventually contributed more than $5 million to the project). During its conversion into the MSI, the building's exterior was re-cast in limestone, retaining its 1893 Beaux Arts look, while the interior was replaced with a new one in Art Moderne style designed by Alfred P. Shaw.
Rosenwald established the museum organization in 1926 and insisted that his name not appear on the building, but nonetheless, for the first few years of the museum's existence, it was known as the Rosenwald Industrial Museum. In 1928, the name of the museum was changed to the Museum of Science and Industry. Rosenwald's vision was to create an interactive museum in the style of the Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, a museum he visited in 1911 when he was in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on vacation with his family.
Waldemar Kaempffert
Waldemar Kaempffert was a US science writer and museum director.Waldemar Kaempffert was born and raised in New York City. He received his B.S. from the City College of New York in 1897. Thereafter he was employed by Scientific American, first as a translator , then as managing editor...
because he shared Julius Rosenwald's vision. Kaempffert was the science editor for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. He assembled the museum's first curatorial staff and began organizing and constructing the exhibits. In order to design and prepare the museum, Kaempffert and his staff visited the Deutsches Museum in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, the Science Museum
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, and the Technical Museum
Technisches Museum Wien
The Technisches Museum Wien lies in Vienna , in Penzing district, on the Mariahilferstraße 212....
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, all of which served as models for the MSI. Kaempffert was also instrumental in developing close ties with the science departments of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
which supplied much of the scholarship for the exhibits. Kaempffert resigned in early 1931 amid growing disputes with the second president of the board of directors over the objectivity and neutrality of the exhibits and his management of the staff.
The new Museum of Science and Industry opened to the public in three stages between 1933 and 1940. The first opening ceremony took place during the Century of Progress Exposition
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
. Two of the Museum's presidents, a number of curators and other staff members, and exhibits came to MSI from the Century of Progress event.
For years visitors entered the museum through its original main entrance. However, it proved too small to handle a large number of people. The new main entrance is a structure detached from the main museum building, through which visitors descend into an underground area then re-ascend into the main building, in a way similar to the Louvre Pyramid
Louvre Pyramid
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum...
.
Exhibits
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the only captured one now on display in the Western Hemisphere. In 2004, the Museum opened a pit in the front lawn in front of the East Pavilion that would later become the subterranean McCormick
Robert R. McCormick
Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick was a member of the McCormick family of Chicago who became owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper...
Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
Foundation Exhibition Hall, brought the U-505 out from behind the East Pavilion, and lowered the U-505 inside, opening The New U-505 Experience on June 5, 2005. Take Flight recreates a San Francisco to Chicago flight using a real Boeing 727
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
jet plane donated by United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
. Silent film star and stock market investor Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
's Fairy Castle is on display, as is The Great Train Story
The Great Train Story
The Great Train Story is a HO scale model railroad display located in the Transportation Zone of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It explains the story of modern day rail transportation in a journey from Seattle, Washington through several plains states en route to Chicago, Illinois...
, a 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) model railroad that explains the story of transportation from Seattle to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The Transportation Zone includes exhibits on air and land transportation, including the 999 Empire State Express steam locomotive, the first vehicle ever to exceed 100 mph. The Transportation Zone also features two World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
warplanes donated by the British government, a Ju 87 R-2/Trop. Stuka divebomber — one of only two intact Stukas left in the world — and a Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
. The first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel train, the Pioneer Zephyr
Pioneer Zephyr
The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , commonly known as the Burlington...
, is on permanent display in the Great Hall, renamed the Entry Hall in 2008, and a free tour goes through it every 10–20 minutes. Several U.S. Navy warship models are on display. There is a flight simulator for the new F-35 Lightning II
F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability...
.
In keeping with Rosenwald's vision, many of the exhibits are interactive, ranging from Genetics: Decoding Life, which looks at how genetics affect human and animal development, to ToyMaker 3000, a working assembly line that lets visitors order a toy top and watch as it is made. There is also an interactive Fab Lab MSI
Fab Lab MSI
Fab Lab MSI - The Fab lab MSI is a small scale workshop that uses various machines to create both prototypes for individuals and small projects for museum members and visitors...
, which is intended to be an interactive lab where members can "build anything".
In March 2010, the museum opened Science Storms in the Allstate
Allstate
The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...
Court. This multilevel exhibit features a 40 feet (12.2 m) water vapor tornado, tsunami tank, Tesla coil
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
, heliostat
Heliostat
A heliostat is a device that includes a mirror, usually a plane mirror, which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space...
system, and an authentic Wimshurst machine
Wimshurst machine
The Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst ....
built by James Wimshurst
James Wimshurst
James Wimshurst was an English inventor, engineer and shipwright. Though Wimshurst did not patent his machines and the various improvements that he made to them, his refinements to the electrostatic generator led to its becoming widely known as the Wimshurst machine.-Biography:Wimshurst was born...
in the late 19th century. All artifacts allow guests to explore the physics and chemistry of the natural world around them.
MSI's Henry Crown Space Center includes the Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
spacecraft which flew the first mission beyond low earth orbit to the Moon, enabling its crew, Frank Borman
Frank Borman
Frank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so...
, James Lovell
Jim Lovell
James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
and William Anders
William Anders
William Alison Anders is a former United States Air Force officer, NASA astronaut, businessman, and engineer. He is, along with Apollo 8 crewmates Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, one of the first three persons to have left Earth orbit and traveled to the Moon .-Biography:Anders was born to Arthur...
to become the first ever human beings to see the Earth as a whole, as well as becoming the first to view the Moon upclose (as well as the first to view its farside at all). Other exhibits include an OmniMax theater, Scott Carpenter
Scott Carpenter
Malcolm Scott Carpenter is an American engineer, former test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut. He is best known as one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959....
's Mercury Atlas 7 spacecraft, a Lunar Module trainer and a life-size mockup of a space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
.
The Museum is known for unique and quirky permanent exhibits, such as a walk-through model of the human heart
Human heart
The human heart is a muscular organ that provides a continuous blood circulation through the cardiac cycle and is one of the most vital organs in the human body...
, which was removed in 2008 for the construction of YOU! the Experience, which opened October 8, 2009, and replaced with a 13 feet (4 m) interactive 3D heart. Also well known are the Body Slices [two cadavers exhibited in 1/2 in slices] currently on display - in part - in YOU! the Experience. You! the Experience also features Gunther von Hagens
Gunther von Hagens
Gunther von Hagens is a controversial German anatomist who invented the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination.-Early life:...
plastinates.
Due to its age and design, the Museum's building itself has become a museum piece.
Other exhibits include Yesterday's Mainstreet; a mock-up of a Chicago street from the early 20th century complete with a cobblestone
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
road, old-fashioned light fixtures, fire hydrants, and several shops, including the precursors to several Chicago-based businesses. Included are:
- Dr. John B. Murphy's office
- Berghoff's restaurantThe Berghoff (restaurant)The Berghoff restaurant, at 17 West Adams Street, near the center of the Chicago Loop, was opened in 1898 by Herman Joseph Berghoff and has become a Chicago landmark....
- Jewel Tea Company groceryJewel (supermarket)Jewel-Osco is a supermarket chain headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Jewel-Osco has 182 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest Indiana.Jewel-Osco and Jewel are currently wholly owned subsidiaries of Eden Prairie,...
- Law office
- Lytton's Clothing Store
- Commonwealth EdisonCommonwealth EdisonCommonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...
- Gossard Corset Shop
- Chas. A. Stevens & Co. (Now Bankrupt)
- Chicago Post Office
- WalgreensWalgreensWalgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...
Drug Company - The Nickelodeon CinemaNickelodeon movie theaterThe Nickelodeon was a multi-purpose theater that was popular from about 1900 to 1914. Usually situated in converted storefronts, the Nickelodeon featured motion pictures, illustrated songs, slide shows and lectures...
- Finnigan's Ice Cream Parlor and Photo Studio
Unlike the other shops, both Finnigan's Ice Cream Parlor and The Nickelodeon Cinema can be entered and are functional businesses. Finnigan's serves an assortment of flavors and varieties of ice cream and The Nickelodeon Cinema plays short silent films throughout the day. Another important aspect to Yesterday's Main Street is the air conditioning that is blown through the exhibit to create the sensation of a cool fall evening.
In 1993, the F-104 Starfighter
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
on loan to MSI from the U.S. Air Force since 1978, was sent to the Mid-America Air Museum
Mid-America Air Museum
The Mid-America Air Museum is an aerospace and aircraft museum located in Liberal, Kansas, at the Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport.Located within a hangar that formally belonged to Beech Aircraft and on an airfield that served as a B-24 Liberator training base during the Second World War, the...
in Liberal, Kansas
Liberal, Kansas
Liberal is the county seat of Seward County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 20,525.- History :S.S. Rogers built the first house in what would become Liberal in 1872. Rogers became famous in the region for giving water to weary travelers...
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In March 1995 the Santa Fe Steam Locomotive 2903 was moved from outside the museum to the Illinois Railway Museum
Illinois Railway Museum
The Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States and is located in Union, Illinois, northwest of Chicago...
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The museum is home to the Junior Achievement's U.S. Business Hall of Fame.
Exhibitions
In addition to its three floors of standing exhibits, the Museum of Science & Industry also hosts temporary and traveling exhibitions. Exhibitions differ from exhibits because they last for five months or less and usually require a separate paid admission fee. Exhibitions at MSI have included Titanic: The Exhibition, which was the largest display of relics from the wreck of RMS Titanic, in 2000; Gunther von Hagens' Body WorldsBody Worlds
Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures...
, a view into the human body through use of plastinated
Plastination
Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample....
human specimens, in 2005; and Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
: Man, Inventor, Genius in the summer of 2006. Past temporary exhibitions included CSI: The Experience
CSI: The Experience
CSI: The Experience is a traveling exhibition about crime lab forensic science and technology inspired by the hit television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.- Development and location :...
, Robots Like Us, City of the Future, Canstruction and Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a traveling exhibition created by the Museum of Science, Boston, featuring props and costumes used in the Star Wars films, but focusing primarily on the science behind George Lucas' science fiction-fantasy epic...
,and The Glass Experience. Harry Potter: The Exhibition opened on April 30, 2009, and left the museum on September 29, 2009. The fourth installment of Smart Home: Green + Wired reopened in March 2011 and runs through January 2012, featuring the work of green architect Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann is a leading green architect and designer with Michelle Kaufmann Studio.In 2002, Kaufmann founded Michelle Kaufmann Designs, a full service architecture firm specializing in sustainable design. The firm designed and built single-family and multi-family green homes using...
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See also
- Architecture of Chicago
- Science museumScience museumA science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
- Deutsches MuseumDeutsches MuseumThe Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
- List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago