Gantz Family Collections Center Policies

The Field Museum of Natural History is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the public. The Museum’s primary purpose is to accumulate and disseminate knowledge of natural and cultural history and to preserve, exhibit, and use collections. The Museum’s unique responsibility, which distinguishes it from schools, universities, and research institutions, is to strategically acquire, study, and preserve its scientific and heritage collections and to promote their accessibility and use. The Museum’s collections are held in perpetual trust for the public, especially the people of the State of Illinois.

This Policy establishes the Museum’s standards for the acquisition, management, use, and disposition of the Museum’s collections, formally accessioned and non-accessioned, in the disciplines of anthropology, botany, geology, zoology, and the library, and includes the associated accession, catalog, and conservation records. This Policy does not apply to teaching collections used by the Museum in its public education programs or other Museum property, such as items used solely as decor or as props for exhibition.