Charles Abel Cm win works on mural of "Traveler's Tree," now on view in Plants of the World Hall. B78689 



PAINTERS 



AT FIELD MUSEUM 



I 



a look at the men and women who created 

 the museum's habitat backgrounds and murals 



by David M. Walsten 



20 



. n the late 1890s something new began to happen 

 in the way museums exhibited natural history speci- 

 mens. It had been the convention to place them on 

 view in an unadorned, regimented fashion — not unlike 

 rows of canned goods in a grocery store. Then the 



diorama came into vogue as a device for displaying 

 specimens in realistic settings. 



Commonly, these dioramas included painted 

 backgrounds, most often on curved walls, that attempt- 

 ed to blend imperceptibly into three-dimensional forms 



