Museum of Natural History

The Museum of Natural Historty, located in the Natural History Building, showcased a variety of models and specimens, including: [1]

Exhibits in archeology, geology, and zoology, illustrating the classification, evolution, variation, geopgrahic distribution, and habitat relations of animals. Special exhibits include the commercial uses of natural resources; ethnology of the American Indians; Eskimo material obtained by the Crocker Land Expedition; handicraft of the Cahokia Mound buildings; the bird life of Illinois, illustrating the migration and geographic distribution of species by colored maps; a synoptic series of animal life carried down to orders; types of animals and plants found in American geological formations; the Blaschka glass models of invertebrates; the Barnum and Hess collection of birds eggs; 500,000 specimens of Mollusca; 170,000 insect specimens; several fossil series, including coal plants and animal life from Mazon Creek in Grundy County; Devonian animal life; and extensive Pleistocene collections. The zoology of Illinois is well represented

The Museum of Natural History was originally located in the center of the Natural History Building, occupying a respectable 51 by 63 foot space. [2] It later moved to quarters on the fourth floor until around 2001, when it was closed and its more than 420,000 artifacts [3] moved to the new Spurlock Museum. Among this spectacular assemblage is the entire bird collection from the Columbian Exposition of the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair. [4]