Andrew W. Mellon Connecting Communities to Collections Program

Your Guide to Spring Break 2025

Photo: Betye Saar in 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California; photographer David Sprague.

How a visit to the Field inspired Betye Saar's art

Two monarch butterflies are perched atop a flower in downtown Chicago.

Cities are Key to Saving Monarch Butterflies

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Monarch butterflies have been recommended for protected status by the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Miami annual lacrosse game, 2019

The Creator’s Game: Keeping Traditions Alive Through Lacrosse

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Cicada Double Emergence 

Paleoartist Ted Rechlin chats onstage with Field Museum Dinosaur Curator Jingmai O’Connor, PhD, during a Q&A at the Field Museum’s first-ever Dino Fest on June 10.

Paleoartist Ted Rechlin Helps Bring Dinosaurs to Life

Lynika Stroizer working in a lab at the museum.

Lynika Strozier: A Face of Science

Dr Bill Parkinson addresses visiting museum directors from Europe at the Field Museum opening of the First Kings of Europe exhibition in late March 2023.

First Kings of Europe in Budapest

Winter in Chicago—Get Outside!

Media for Connecting Past and Present in Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories

Connecting Past and Present in Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories

Media for Meet Chicago’s Native Bees

Meet Chicago's Native Bees

Media

Remaking Akeley's Striped Hyenas Diorama

Media for Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Media for Wild Color—here, there, and everywhere!

Wild Color—here, there, and everywhere!

Media for Who was Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable?

Who was Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable?

Media for The Black Taxidermy Hall of Famer You Need to Know

The Black Taxidermy Hall of Famer You Need to Know

Carl Akeley’s winter scene from the iconic diorama, Four Seasons of the White-tailed Deer

Must-See Selfie Spots other than SUE

Media for 2021 Year in Review

2021 Year in Review

A monarch butterfly perches on a purple blazing star flower on a sunny day. Black-eyed Susans and other prairie plants are in the background.

Act Today for a Brighter Future

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A monarch butterfly stops in our Rice Native Gardens. Field scientists estimate that US cities could support 15 to 30 percent of the milkweed that’s needed to save the eastern monarch population.

Climate Crisis Report: Grim, with a Glimmer of Hope

Media for Solving the Decades-Long Mystery of Manu

Solving the Decades-Long Mystery of Manu

Media for How can we protect enough biodiversity to sustain life on Earth?

How can we protect enough biodiversity to sustain life on Earth?

The Legacy of Black Taxidermists Continues

A yellow octopus with bright blue rings and a crab surrounded by colorful coral.

Please Don’t Touch the Octopus

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Please Don't Touch the Octopus

A man wearing a white lab coat uses a paintbrush to touch up the teeth of a Daspletosaurus dinosaur skeleton.

Before SUE the T. rex, there was ‘Gorgeous George’

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Before SUE the T. rex, there was ‘Gorgeous George'

Sitting on a couch, Mojina Mote holds a framed photo of herself as a young girl.

Home Is Where the Jaki Is

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72 years later, Field Museum staff presented Mojina Mote, who now lives in Enid with her son Terry, with a print of the photo.

Akiko Shinya holds a pick hammer and stands in a grassy area with badlands in the background.

Working in Paleontology: Inspiration and Advice

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Akiko Shinya on a prospecting trip in the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. She and the team found several dinosaurs, including an ankylosaur. (This was during the August 2017 solar eclipse event, hence why Akiko’s holding eclipse glasses!)

A vertebra bone that has iridescent rainbow coloring on one side.

Working in Paleontology: An Introduction to the Collections

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A composite image of four people who work in paleontology at the Field Museum: Az Klymiuk, Pia Viglietti, Adrienne Stroup, and Akiko Shinya.

Working in Paleontology: Projects, Studies, and Interests

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Pink coneflowers in front of the Field Museum's north entrance on a sunny day with clear blue skies.

Make the Most of Your Summer Museum Visit

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The Rice Native Gardens at the Field use native prairie plants like coneflowers.

Make the Most of Your Museum Visit

The Relevance of Native America to Black History

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Image for The Relevance of Native America to Black History

2020 Year in Review

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Image for 2020 Year in Review

A group of African American women suffragists pose for a photo. On the left, closest to the camera, Nannie Helen Burroughs holds a banner that reads, "Banner State Woman's National Baptist Convention."

Be Determined about Democracy

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Suffragist Nannie Helen Burroughs leads fellow activists in the early 1900s.

Rising from the ashes of Brazil's Museu Nacional fire

Levi Jenkins smiles for the camera outside the Field Museum.

Becoming a Leader, Mentor, and Community Builder

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Ylanda Wilhite at a protest in downtown Chicago. She wears a facemask and a Field Museum shirt while holding up a t-shirt that reads, “If you can breathe, vote!”

Tomorrow’s Leaders Start Here

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Field staffer Ylanda Wilhite at a protest in Chicago in 2020.

Tomorrow's Leaders Start Here

A man sits on the ground in front of the Field Museum's south steps.

Why I Ride My Bike 30 Miles to Work

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Anthropologists on Racism and the History of Inequality

Meet the Pterosaur Flock

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Going out on a limb for Quetzalcoatlus

Darkling Beetles: Spray acid, play dead

A river at sunrise or sunset, with the yellow and blue sky reflecting on the water.

Protecting One of the Amazon’s Last Free-Flowing Rivers

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Protecting One of the Amazon's Last Free-Flowing Rivers

I put GoPros on my bird feeders

A series of six painted iguanas in different colors and stages of the process.

Fact and Fiction About Watercolor

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#StayHome #WithMe & stay well!

Two children seated at a table look at picture books.

Experience the Field at Home

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Carl Cotton, wearing a lab coat, stands in front of a display of bird specimens. He looks down at a card he’s holding in his hand.

A Natural Talent: The Taxidermy of Carl Cotton

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Carl Cotton places individual letters on a label for an exhibition featuring hybrid birds.

Carl Cotton: Chicago's Original Black Taxidermist

Molly Butler crouches in the grass near three Galapagos giant tortoises.

Following Darwin to the Galápagos

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Molly Butler at the Rancho Primicias Giant Tortoise Reserve on Santa Cruz island in the Galápagos.

Carl Cotton, holding a paintbrush, sits at a table with various art supplies and a large model of a turtle.

Finding Carl Cotton

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The Field Museum

What should museums do with their dead? (w/ Caitlin Doughty!)

Where Your Water Comes From—And Why You Should Care

The Joy of Cooking (with Bugs!)!

Planting the Seeds of Conservation

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Image for Planting the Seeds of Conservation

What Native Staff Are Reflecting On During Native American Heritage Month

The MUSHROOM HUNT! [#TeamTrees]

How Birds inspire Builders

Venoms vs. Poisons

My favorite diorama hidden secret!

A lake surrounded by tall pine trees with a snow-capped mountain range in the background. The sky is blue with large fluffy white clouds.

Out of Office, Into Nature

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3 Questions with a Scientist: Poison Frogs

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Several ceramic bowls rest on the seafloor, stuck together along with corroded iron and remnants of sea life.

What We’re Still Uncovering from an 800-Year-Old Shipwreck

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What We're Still Uncovering from an 800-Year-Old Shipwreck

Alligator Dissection HIGHLIGHTS!

3 Questions with a Scientist: On Liking Lichens

Ghost Lineages

Left: A mounted T. rex skeleton inside a museum gallery. Right: A long-necked titanosaur skeleton in a large classical hall.

Which Dinosaur Bones Are “Real”?

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3 Questions with a Scientist: Hopping Rats

I'm Making a TV Show!!

3 Questions with a Scientist: Baby Sharks

Media for Press Release: New Field Museum Exhibit Featuring Poems for Popular Attractions Debuts  During National Poetry Month

Making Máximo the Titanosaur

Misfits of the Mineral Collection

The Egg Collection!

A water bird perches on a rock near a few small plants. A body of water and the Chicago skyline are out of focus in the far distance.

Small—But Real—Changes You Can Make to Save the Planet

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Connect with scientists exploring the rich history of life on Earth and working towards a more sustainable future—in Chicago and beyond.

Dozens of orange and black monarch butterflies perch on tree branches, practically perching on top of one another. Some are blurred as they flap their wings.

Following the Monarch Butterflies to Mexico

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Botanical illustration of a bunch of yellow flowers, with three with and pink flowers in the center. The arrangement includes golden samphires, daisies, and flea banes.

The Popular and Prolific Ms. Pratt

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Ask Emily! #15

Two young girls look up at a taxidermied gorilla in a glass display case. The gorilla’s head is angled such that it appears to be making eye contact with the children. A digital rail, a screen on a stand, is positioned in front of the case. In the background, large-scale photographs of objects are affixed to the wall.

Bushman the Gorilla

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A group gathers at the corner of a diorama case. One man sits a desk with a typerwriter. He looks up to a family of three standing over him. The man in the middle stands with arms around the other two individuals. Both are smiling down at the man seated at the desk. A black box with a glass front holds a rock specimen and is propped up against the leg of the desk.

Poetry Pop-Up

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Finding the Poetry in Natural History

Illustration of a forest scene, with prehistoric animals on either side of a creek. In the foreground, a black and blue striped lizard-like animal perches on a rock as it appears to hunt a winged insect. A smaller lizard crosses a log over the creek. On the other side, two flat-faced, pig-sized animals approach the water’s edge, and a dinosaur creeps in the background.

These New Fossil Discoveries Show Why Evolution is the Coolest

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A Year in Review and a Look to the Future

What Fossils Reveal about Today's Climate Change

In a black-and-white photo, a man and a woman look at a model of a bird perched on a tropical-looking plant. The man uses a pencil to point at a detail, while the women writes something on a notepad. Their clothing reflects the time period of late 1930s.

Progress and Creativity during the Great Depression

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Field Museum Photo Archives Z80756

A mouse perched on sticks surrounded by dried brown leaves.

Sperm Can Confirm that Lookalike Mice Are Different Species

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A very close-up, high resolution photograph of a beetle that has a mostly black body with orange-brown legs and yellow hairs and the backend of the body. Its eyes appear very large and globular.

Megalopinus sanguinitriguttatus, a species of rove beetle.

A Bug’s (After)Life

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A Bug's (After)Life

What It's Like to Live in the Jungle for a Month

Working inside a maloca, or central gathering space for the local community.

Inside the Whale Warehouse

Side-by-side graphic of SUE the T. rex, showing before and after changes. The areas that have been moved or changed are highlighted in gray.

A Fresh Science Makeover for SUE

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Compare how SUE's shape and pose changed from 2000 (left) to 2018 (right).

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