Treasures in The Field Museum Library

When you think of The Field Museum, what immediately comes to mind? I'm going to wager it is Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex or the man-eating lions of Tsavo, made famous in the 1996 film, The Ghost and the Darkness. It is one of the greatest natural history museums in the world, but the history of The Field Museum is deeply rooted in the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and its libraries contain cultural treasures that reflect that heritage.

An early overview of the museum's history, written before the present museum was constructed, is found in The Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography by Arba Nelson Waterman, published in 1908:

The Field Museum of Natural History was established in 1894 in the former fine arts building of the World's Columbian Exposition. It was founded upon a gift of $1,000,000 made by the late Marshall Field, and the basis of its exhibition material was laid in purchases of World's Fair exhibits. Since the original organization of the museum, many expeditions have been dispatched to all parts of North America and other countries for the purpose of obtaining material for deposit and exchange, and many donations have been received from institutions engaged in similar investigations. The museum proper embraces collections of mammals and birds reaching many thousand specimens, a taxidermy two stories in height, a section devoted to North American ethnology, a herbarium of 260,000 sheets, and fully equipped laboratories and assaying rooms. That the title of the institution is not fairly descriptive of its scope is also evident from the fact that it has a remarkably complete library of 50,000 titles, and a well equipped printing office from which issue the publications devoted to the investigations and expeditions conducted under its management. The four grand divisions of the museum are those of anthropology, botany, geology and zoology. The Field Museum is, in many ways, a development of the World's Columbian Exposition, this being especially true of its management. Harlow N. Higinbotham was president of both the Exposition and the Museum, and Frederick J. V. Skiff, still secretary and director of the Museum, was at the head of the department of mines and mining of the Exposition, as well as deputy director general. He has since been the great organizing and developing power behind the Chicago institution, and has also become the greatest exposition manager in America. The superb building for the Museum, projected as one of the features of the Lake Front park, will be erected as a result of another princely gift from the late Marshall Field, who at his death in 1906 bequeathed $8,000,000 to it. Of this sum $4,000,000 is to be expended in the erection of a building and $4,000,000 for endowment.

It is to the libraries that I want to direct your attention.The Field Museum Library and, in particular, The World Columbian Exposition Collection, are amazing repositories of information and images. If you haven't explored the online library resources, you might want to take some time to do so. For those interested in the Columbian Exposition, this will be a treat. In particular, note the Columbian Exposition Scrapbook compiled by the Robbins Family that begins on page five of the Exposition Collection. This family meticulously preserved every bit of advertising and Fair souvenirs they picked up in a wonderful scrapbook. The site also includes hundreds of pictures of the Fair and photos documenting the construction of the present Museum building.

I love digging for historical treasures online, and this time, I struck gold.

Recommended reading:
Guide to the Field Columbian Museum, with diagrams and descriptions By Field Columbian Museum, Field Museum of Natural History (1894)
The Field Museum (Wikipedia)