CENTENNIAL DIRECTIONS 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1993 Field Museum of Natural History will celebrate 

 its hundredth anniversary. In this first century, the 

 vision and commitment of its founders and their suc- 

 cessors have made Field Museum one of the four great 

 natural history museums. To ensure that the Museum 

 will continue to build on its accomplishments in its sec- 

 ond century, Museum staff and trustees undertook a 

 centennial planning process, with the assistance of 

 McKinsey & Company, Inc. 



That participatory process focused on what the 

 Museum must do to achieve excellence in its two basic 

 missions — as a research institute for the study of natural 

 history and as a public museum devoted to stimulating 

 interest in and building knowledge of natural history. 

 Specific programmatic and financial goals have been 



formulated, and the Museum's Board of Trustees has be- 

 gun a capital funding campaign designed to bring those 

 goals within reach and to help the Museum achieve a 

 leadership role in research and public education. 



This Centennial Directions statement reports on 

 the present state of the Museum and sets forth the ac- 

 tions the Museum must take to: 



* Build its position as an excellent research institution 

 in the mainstream of basic research in the United States 



* Extend its influence as a public museum committed to 

 public understanding of natural history 



* Provide the full range of institutional support required 

 to carry out these two major missions 



The following sections of this report discuss each of 

 these challenges in turn. 



An Excellent Research Institution 

 of Natural History 



Field Museum of Natural History holds a major place in 

 natural science research in the United States. Its collec- 

 tions are renowned nationally and internationally for 

 their breadth, depth, and quality. Collection-based 

 research is vital to the nation's research effort and makes 

 scholarship a thriving force in the life of the Museum. 



Maintaining and building on its excellence as a 

 research institution will require major ongoing efforts by 

 the Museum. Simply maintaining the existing collec- 

 tions is in itself an enormous undertaking; building the 

 collections and associated research efforts are particular 

 challenges in view of the limited funding now available 

 for basic research. To advance its position as a leading 

 research institution, Field Museum must work to: 



* Maintain and build selected collections 



* Position its research programs as key contributors to 

 the mainstream of basic research. 



Maintain and Build Collections 



Natural science and anthropological collections are a 



key element in the nation's research infrastructure. 



8 These cataloged specimens and artifacts provide primary 



source material for exploring the history, variety, limits, 

 and possibilities of the world's flora, fauna, and people. 

 With more than sixteen million artifacts and biological 

 specimens, Field Museum's collections are an irreplace- 

 able international resource. 



They rank third in the nation in size, surpassed only 

 by the National Museum of Natural History of the 

 Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of 

 Natural History. Field Museum's collections rank second 

 in breadth. They are grouped into three major catego- 

 ries: anthropology, biology (including paleontology), 

 and physical geology (Exhibit 1, page 10). Although 

 Field Museum rarely holds the largest major collection of 

 a particular type, its holdings almost always rank among 

 the top three or four in the nation. The anthropological 

 holdings number over 600,000 items and are the fourth 

 largest collection in the nation. Plant specimens 

 numbering over two million constitute the fifth largest 

 collection nationwide. Our animal and plant fossil col- 

 lections are among the top three or four nationally, and 

 our zoological specimens number more than twelve mil- 

 lion and rank third or fourth in the United States. 



The Museum's large, in-depth collections are rec- 

 ognized by our national and international peers through 

 their use of the collections and support of our grant pro- 

 posals. For both research and exhibition, the Museum is 



