We are a nation built on the ideals of many, and Native North American contributions to our collective culture and society are immeasurable. The founders who wrote our U.S. Constitution, based on their democratic ideals, were influenced in part by Native American way of government. Read more about Democracy and the Iroquois Constitution
Welcome to the Anthropology Collections Curation Portal! Know something we don’t know about objects in the anthropology collections at the Field Museum? Please use this portal to add new information to the Museum’s collections database.
Learn more about Anthropology Curation PortalFebruary 12 is Darwin’s birthday. To celebrate, check out some of the coolest things we have in our collections with a link to the Granddaddy of Biology himself. Read more about 5 Behind-the-Scenes Specimens with Links to Darwin
Invertebrate paleontologists aren’t afraid of anything, so when Collections Manager Paul Mayer was offered a chance to add hundreds of monsters to The Field’s collections, he jumped at the opportunity. The monsters in question, Tully monsters, are just a small part of the enormous donation of Thomas V. Testa’s collection of Mazon Creek fossils that The Field Museum just received from Field Associate Jack Wittry. Read more about Monsters Storm The Field
These days, “digitization” is a frequently heard word around the museum. Through the years, there have been some interesting projects that bring natural history specimens to more people through pictures (see for example the on-line archive of the Berlin negatives of type plant specimens). We are doing a project in the Bird Division we call “The Egg Book.” It is a project that is being done with Ivy Press as part of a series of books they have completed in collaboration with the University of Chicago Press which includes The Book of Leaves and The Book of Fungi. Our book is progressing on a rapid schedule. It will showcase the eggs of 600 species of birds, most of which will come from our collection, but not all as I talk about below. Read more about The Egg Book cometh
Let's cut straight to the chase: there's just one owl. It's great to know that it has survived for over a week in the Montrose Beach Dunes (a state-designated natural area) on the city's north side, despite many potential predators in the area and many eager birders trying to add it to their state lists. The last time a Burrowing Owl that showed up there--in 2008--it only survived for a morning before falling prey to a Cooper's Hawk. Read more about BURROWING OWL at Montrose!
As a graduate student from the Buffalo State College Art Conservation Department, I am completing my summer internship at the Field Museum. I’m working in the Regenstein Conservation Lab with J.P. Brown, the Regenstein Conservator for Pacific Anthropology. Our main project for the summer has been rehousing the Field Museum’s collection of Sulka dance masks from New Britain, Papua New Guinea Read more about Rehousing Sulka Masks
The Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies' mission is to enhance our knowledge of nature through rigorous scientific studies in meteoritics, the planetary sciences and polar studies. Read more about New website for the Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies
Many generations of adults remember coming to the Museum and being transported back to a time when people were living in caves. The first of two Neanderthal family dioramas was installed in 1929, in the Hall of Historical Geology which was located on the Museum's 2nd floor. In 1933, the Hall of Prehistoric Man (located on the Museum's Ground Floor) opened with a series of 8 prehistoric scenes.
Learn more about What happened to the Caveman dioramas?