Dispatch 1 – The Field Museum
On October 4th, 2015, I travelled to the Field Museum with another member of my class, Taylor Mitchell, and a friend of hers from a different Freshmen Experience class (see reference photo 1 for “selfie”). It was one of the monthly free days at the museum. It was my first time visiting the museum and my first time taking a CTA bus, so it was a very exciting day. My grandfather remembered going to the museum when he lived in Chicago as a very young boy, almost 90 years ago.
The very first thing I noticed about the Field Museum is just how huge it is. The building is magnificent with three stories of exhibits about much of everything. From exhibits featuring Ancient Chinese relics to Carl Akeley’s taxidermy dioramas …show more content…
Right outside the entrance to the exhibit are two huge glass cabinets filled with particular curiosities from our modern day including a cobra snake, a taxidermy ram, and a large selection of petrified butterflies along with at least 30 other fossils, taxidermy animals, and plants. These items come to together to create a curiosity cabinet that is meant to showcase the natural world today. Just next to the cabinets is a large lab behind a plate of glass. Visitors at the museum can watch real live scientists working hard on the preservation of different specimen. The day I visited, the researchers were working on something that looked like a large hornet …show more content…
edutainment). In the dinosaur room within the Evolving Planet exhibit, children and adults alike are entertained by being able to recreate what the dinosaur might have sounded like. In addition, the Field Museum installed video displays where at the touch of a button children can hear scientists explain what they’re seeing in words they’re understand (Image 5).
Finally, in Carl Akeley’s taxidermy dioramas you can see an idea that we discussed briefly in class and that is the idea of the family unit in the animal kingdom. In almost every exhibit you can make out some sort of family relationship (usually the mother/father/2.5 kids model). It is pleasing to the average museum goer to see this happy family hanging out together. A negative effect however, is inaccurately educating the public on the family dynamics in the animal kingdom.
My favorite part of the Evolving Planet exhibit came at the end (Image 7). While the entire exhibit was very educational and very cool at some points, the end of the exhibits seeks to remind the visitor of the great world of nature that is waiting for them outside the museum. With images of pretty much every living thing (from ducks to corn) and a quote by Charles Darwin, this part of the exhibit is able to give the viewer something to think about before heading into the gift
On October 4th, 2015, I travelled to the Field Museum with another member of my class, Taylor Mitchell, and a friend of hers from a different Freshmen Experience class (see reference photo 1 for “selfie”). It was one of the monthly free days at the museum. It was my first time visiting the museum and my first time taking a CTA bus, so it was a very exciting day. My grandfather remembered going to the museum when he lived in Chicago as a very young boy, almost 90 years ago.
The very first thing I noticed about the Field Museum is just how huge it is. The building is magnificent with three stories of exhibits about much of everything. From exhibits featuring Ancient Chinese relics to Carl Akeley’s taxidermy dioramas …show more content…
Right outside the entrance to the exhibit are two huge glass cabinets filled with particular curiosities from our modern day including a cobra snake, a taxidermy ram, and a large selection of petrified butterflies along with at least 30 other fossils, taxidermy animals, and plants. These items come to together to create a curiosity cabinet that is meant to showcase the natural world today. Just next to the cabinets is a large lab behind a plate of glass. Visitors at the museum can watch real live scientists working hard on the preservation of different specimen. The day I visited, the researchers were working on something that looked like a large hornet …show more content…
edutainment). In the dinosaur room within the Evolving Planet exhibit, children and adults alike are entertained by being able to recreate what the dinosaur might have sounded like. In addition, the Field Museum installed video displays where at the touch of a button children can hear scientists explain what they’re seeing in words they’re understand (Image 5).
Finally, in Carl Akeley’s taxidermy dioramas you can see an idea that we discussed briefly in class and that is the idea of the family unit in the animal kingdom. In almost every exhibit you can make out some sort of family relationship (usually the mother/father/2.5 kids model). It is pleasing to the average museum goer to see this happy family hanging out together. A negative effect however, is inaccurately educating the public on the family dynamics in the animal kingdom.
My favorite part of the Evolving Planet exhibit came at the end (Image 7). While the entire exhibit was very educational and very cool at some points, the end of the exhibits seeks to remind the visitor of the great world of nature that is waiting for them outside the museum. With images of pretty much every living thing (from ducks to corn) and a quote by Charles Darwin, this part of the exhibit is able to give the viewer something to think about before heading into the gift