GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 
INTRODUCTION 
This handbook is designed to serve as a general guide to 
the collections in the Museum. 
Field Museum of Natural History was established in 1893 
at the close of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The 
founding of a scientific institution of this character in Chi- 
cago was made possible by a gift of $1,000,000 by Marshall 
Field (whose name the institution bears), and who on his 
death, January 16, 1906, bequeathed the institution a further 
sum of $8,000,000, of which $4,000,000 was designated to be 
used for the erection of a building and $4,000,000 for 
endowment. 
The Museum is incorporated under State Law and its 
active control rests in the Board of Trustees, with President, 
Secretary, Treasurer, etc. The executive of the Museum is 
the Director, under whom there are five head Curators with 
divisional Assistant Curators, Preparators, etc. 
The building now occupied by the Museum is 350 feet 
wide and 700 feet long. There are four floors, two of which 
are devoted to exhibition purposes, while the ground and third 
floors are used as working space for the scientific and mainte- 
nance staff. The main central hall rises to the entire height of 
the building, the rest of the structure being divided into 
floors. The exterior, of Georgia white marble, is about 
eighty feet high and is treated in a monumental manner 
based on Greek architecture of the Ionic order. The principal 
fronts are divided into a large pedimented central pavilion 
with two long wings terminated by a smaller pavilion at 
each end. One of the principal features of the structure is a 
terrace, about forty feet wide, which completely surrounds 
the building and rises about six feet above the adjacent 
territory. 
In this structure, the architects, Graham, Anderson, 
Probst & White, have given to the City of Chicago and the 
country a masterpiece of monumental building having dis- 
tinction and dignity commensurate with its purpose and 
origin. 
The sculptural decoration of the main hall, dedicated to 
Mr. Stanley Field, the President of the institution, includes 
four figures designed by Mr. Henry Hering. These figures 
symbolize the aims and purposes of the Museum and suggest 
the various activities inspired within its walls. The - figures 
flanking the north archway represent Natural Science and 
the Dissemination of Knowledge, those at the south archway 
typify Research and Record. 
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