Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World's Fair

Any chance our family can go and spend time together at a World-class facility, we are game. I was excited to hear about the newest exhibit at The Field Museum in Chicago. I haven't been to The Field Museum in ages, so I was excited for this day and to experience it with my family.

One the way, I downloaded the Museum App which is available for Apple or Android. This was a cool tool to have for the entire museum visit, not just for this exhibit.

Once we arrived to The Field Museum, we headed straight to Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair exhibit. This Totem Pole is located right on the outside of the exhibit and the app gives you a cool 360 panorama experience.

Wow, we were impressed. This exhibit takes you back to 1893, to the World’s Columbian Exposition. The exhibition shows what visitors to the Fair saw 120 years ago.With over 200 artifacts and specimens on display, you really get a rare look at the items that thrilled fairgoers so long ago.

  

People came from all over the world to see the Fair, which we learned welcomed more than 25 million visitors. 

Source

Fair promoters created special “days” to advertise and engage the locals. “Chicago Day” was held on October 9th to mark the anniversary of the Chicago Fire. Resources tell us that day set a world record for attendance with more than 700,000 visitors.

The exhibit offers a few cool items for the kids to check out. My kids were having fun playing with the Indonesian gamelan. Because of digital technology, we learned how to play it. The Indonesian Gamelan is an ensemble of musical instruments featured in performances at the Fair's Javanese Village.

The kids also enjoyed looking beneath the wrappings of the Peruvian mummy. It was perfect timing because my daughter was learning about mummification at the same time.

Some highlights you don't want to miss:

• Fair memorabilia, such as one of the financial ledgers and tickets (my kids couldn't believe they used to keep track of line items in those big books--what, no computers?!)
• Two digital interactives allowing visitors to explore and engage with the earliest Museum’s collections through new technologies--the kids really enjoyed this part!

We learned so much from that exhibit, which gave us a good base for the rest of the day that we spent at The Field Museum. Here's a few things we learned:

• The Field Museum was founded to commemorate the Fair
• The Museum’s original collections are formed by objects that were all displayed at the Fair
• The Field Museum has the single largest collection of items displayed at the Fair
• The Field Museum is the legacy of the Fair: scientists conduct ground-breaking research on the ever-growing collections, and exhibitions display objects from its vaults for the public to see

I mentioned that we downloaded the app to use during our visit--it was super cool. Here is a screenshot of just one of the items we visited.

After the exhibit, we headed out to get a picture of Sue, I mean, what would a visit to The Field Museum be without that!

 

We ventured around the rest of the museum checking out the other exhibits. The kids enjoyed looking at all the animals on exhibit as well as the Egyptian Tombs. It was a fun, educational filled day that the entire family enjoyed.

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