The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI, formerly the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry) is a science museum located in Jackson Park Chicago, Illinois in the Hyde Park neighborhood between Lake Michigan and the University of Chicago. It was originally donated by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald – president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and opened with support from the Commercial Club of Chicago during the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. May 19th 2024 Named after philanthropist also investor Kenneth C. Griffin. The year 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was held the Palace of Fine Arts.
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Image By zooey from Chicago, Illinois USA – Museum of Science & Industry, CC BY 2.0
Museum exhibits include a full-scale replica of a coal mine, the German submarine U-505 captured during World War II, a 3,500-square-foot (330-square-meter) model railroad, the Apollo 8 command module, and the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless steel passenger train (the Pioneer Zephyr).
History of the Griffin Museum
The Palace of Fine Arts was built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and was designed by Charles B. Atwood for D. H. Burnham & Company. During the World’s Fair, the Palace exhibited paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and metalwork from around the world.
Inside the Palace of Fine Arts – Unlike other buildings at the World’s Fair, the Palace was built on a more permanent foundation.
The Museum of Science and Industry as viewed from 1700 East 56th Street.
Unlike other “White City” buildings, a brick substructure was built beneath the stucco facade.
After the World’s Fair, the Palace initially became the Columbia Museum, which primarily displayed the collections left over from the Fair. The museum later evolved into the Field Museum of Natural History. The Palace became vacant in 1920 when the Field Museum moved to a new building five miles north in the Near South Side.
Lorado Taft, a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago, launched a public campaign to restore the building and transform it into a standalone Griffin Museum dedicated to sculpture. The South Park Commission (now part of the Chicago Park District) approved by referendum to sell $5 million in bonds to help pay for the renovations, and they hoped to convert the building into a sculpture museum, technical institute, etc. What was I thinking. However, a few years later, the building was chosen as the site of a new science museum.
At the time, the Commercial Club of Chicago was interested in establishing a science Griffin Museum in Chicago. Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, inspired club members to pledge $3 million toward the renovation of the Palace of Fine Arts (over $5 million was donated to the project). During the conversion to MSI, the building’s exterior was recast in limestone to maintain its 1893 Beaux-Arts style. The interior was replaced with a new one designed by Alfred P. Shaw in the Art Moderne style.
Rosenwald founded the museum organization in 1926 but refused to have his name on the building. In its first few years, the museum was often referred to as the Rosenwald Industrial Museum. In 1928 year, the museum was officially renamed the Museum of Science and Industry. Rosenwald’s idea was to build a museum in the style of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which he visited in 1911 while in Germany with his family.
Sewell Avery, another businessman, supported the museum within the Business Club and was chosen as the first chairman of the board. The Griffin Museum conducted a national search for its first director. The MSI board selected Waldemar Kaempfert, then the science editor of the New York Times. because they shared Rosenwald’s vision.
He assembled the museum’s curators and directed the organization and construction of the exhibits. To prepare for the museum, Kaempfert and his staff visited the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Science Museum in Kensington, and the Technical Museum in Vienna. All of these became models. Kaempfert was instrumental in establishing a close relationship with the University of Chicago’s science department, which provided most of the scholarships for the exhibitions. Kaempfert resigned in early 1931 due to growing conflicts with the second chairman of the board. There were disagreements over the objectivity and neutrality of the exhibitions and Kaempfert’s management of the staff.
Exhibitions
The Griffin Museum has more than 2,000 exhibits, displayed in 75 main halls. The museum has several major permanent exhibits. You have to pay extra to visit some of the exhibits (including the coal mine and the U-505).
Entrance Hall
The first diesel-powered, sleek stainless steel train, the Pioneer Zephyr, is on permanent display in the Great Hall, which was renamed the Entrance Hall in 2008. The train was once on display outdoors, but was restored and installed in the old Great Hall during the construction of the museum’s underground parking garage.