The Field Museum: Wonders of the World's Fair

Recently, I got an awesome opportunity to head over to the Field Museum here in Chicago and check out their new exhibit Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World's Fair. I was thrilled to go, not just because the Field Museum is one of my all-time favorites, but because I've learned a lot about the fair over the years and am always down to hear more. An entire lecture in my interior design program was devoted to Daniel Burnham, the fair's chief architect, so I'm a fan on multiple levels. This exhibit featured a lot of original artifacts that were on display in 1893, which gave me a great idea of how things used to be. It's funny, some of the items, like lightbulbs, are totally commonplace now, but back then electricity was brand new and kind of scary. It was fascinating to see how much the world has changed in 120 years.

Before I get ahead of myself, a helpful tidbit for your visit is to download the Field Museum tours mobile app. I did, and was excited to find that some of the artifacts (both in the World's Fair exhibit and other areas of the museum) had bonus tidbits to discover. Score!

I also appreciated that the app told me where to find each item. Even though I'm here on a regular basis, there's SO MUCH to see that a little nudge in the right direction was super helpful.

Anyway, while going through Opening the Vaults, I learned that the Field Museum was actually founded as a way to commemorate the fair and house all of the objects. The exhibit had over 200 of those items on display, including tickets and ledgers, Javanese instruments from the fair's midway, and Peruvian mummies. Below we have the sword from a guard's uniform, beautiful beaded clothing from the Sioux tribe, and a large picture of the grounds as they were back in the day:

One thing I had previously learned but forgotten about was how different anthropology was in 1893. At the fair, actual people were put on display. The organizers used words like "savages" and ranked cultures based on how "civilized" they were. Westerners were the ideal and everyone else was compared to them. (Isn't that weird? I think of the Pilgrims using words like that; this was the end of the 19th century!) Thankfully, things have come a long way since then. Now we appreciate that every culture is unique in its own right, even if it's very different from our own.

That's one of the Javanese instruments on the left. Cool, right?

As for the rest of the Field Museum, these days it focuses on natural history, so you can also find some excellent permanent exhibits about animals, plants, and the Earth itself--plus my personal favorites the Hall of Gems and the Hall of Jades. I also made sure to stop and say hello to Sue, the world's most complete T. Rex. Hey, girl!

All in all, it was an excellent day. If you're going to be in Chicago between now and September 7th, 2014, make it a point to see Opening the Vaults. (And then let me know you did so we can talk about it.) To my local readers, have you checked this out yet? What did you think?

I was selected for this opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, however all content and opinions expressed here are my own.