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THE MUSEUM STORY 



The Illinois State Museum is a museum of natural 

 history and art. Though not confined to Illinois, its 

 major emphasis is to interpret these fields in respect 

 to our local interests, resources and development. 



The story of natural history is a long and continu- 

 ing one. The tour in the Museum begins with geol- 



ogy, the development of the earth and the evidences 

 of plant and animal life preserved as fossils. This 

 fascinating story in the rocks helps us understand 

 the origin and development of the world, to under- 

 stand when and where plants and animals developed 

 on the earth; it gives us strong supporting evidence 

 of the developmental evolutionary nature of the 

 world and the life upon it. 



From geology, the exhibits take you directly to 

 the biological development in the Hall of Life; then 

 in the Main Hall are presented many forms of plant 



