Hi everyone and welcome back to Curious By Nature.
My name is Jessica.
I'm the assistant collections manager at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and your host for today's episode.
Today we're celebrating Founders Day.
The Chicago Academy of Sciences was founded on January 13, 1857.
A lot has changed since the academy was established 165 years ago,
including our building, our location in Chicago, and our collections, which we have continued to develop through the years.
Let's get started.
After the Chicago Fire in 1871, the Academy relocated to the Interstate Exposition Building,
a wooden building along the Lakefront that was used for various commercial displays.
In 1890, it was announced that the Exposition Building would be replaced by a permanent
structure for the Art Institute of Chicago.
Again, the Academy was in search of a new home.
By 1892, the Academy had a few options to consider.
The University of Chicago offered space on their campus, and the Board of Commissioners of the West Park System proposed Garfield Park.
The Academy also received an offer of $75,000 from Matthew Laflin, a local real estate tycoon,
for the construction of a new museum building.
As a requirement for the donation, Laflin wanted the new Academy museum to be built in Lincoln Park and open free to the public.
The Board of Commissioners of Lincoln Park contributed $25,000 dollars toward the new Academy building
and an additional $15,000 in museum employees' salaries in exchange for office space.
The Academy accepted the offer, making this one of the first agreements between a cultural institution
and the Chicago Park District to construct a cultural building on public land in Chicago.
The building was designed by local architectural firm, Patton & Fisher and opened on October 31, 1894.
The institution's name, Chicago Academy of Sciences, was engraved on the front arch with the
dedication, the Matthew Laflin Memorial.
The Laflin building was intended to be the north wing of a larger museum.
The Academy hoped to construct additions as the institution grew.
In this new space, much of the Academy's earlier scientific work continued.
The Academy also re-emphasized its commitment to education in the natural sciences
offering opportunities for young students and continuing education programs for teachers.
In addition, the Academy offered field trips and free lectures to the public.
The collections grew rapidly after the Laflin building opened.
Frank Collins Baker, the Academy's then curator, reported over 11,000 specimens donated in just one month during the spring of 1895.
Over 10,000 of these specimens were from the private collection of William C. Egan, a local business person and amateur scientist from Chicago.
Egan's private collection consisted of invertebrate fossils collected primarily from Illinois.
This donation, among many others, demonstrates the Academy's commitment to collecting specimens from Illinois and the Midwest.
For much of our history, each Academy curator and director focused on cultivating their area of expertise and developing that part of our collection.
While collecting was focused on Chicago, Illinois, and the Midwest, the Academy planned expeditions
and collaborated with other natural history museums to ensure a diversity of specimens and species.
Ornithologist Alfred Bailey was the director from 1926 until the mid-1930s.
During his tenure, he traveled to Louisiana to capture still
and motion picture photography of bird populations and their nesting habitats.
He also collaborated with colleagues in Alaska to collect birds, nests, and eggs and have them shipped to Chicago for the Academy's collections.
Dr. Howard K. Gloyd, who headed the Academy after Bailey, focused on the herpetology collections as he was a rattlesnake expert.
He organized several trips to Arizona and the American Southwest to study
amphibians and reptiles, primarily rattlesnakes.
In addition to collecting physical specimens, Bailey and Gloyd also used photography and motion pictures to capture information.
Their films and pictures have helped develop the archival and audio-visual collections
which give us a glimpse into the past and help contextualize the Academy's history,
scientific collecting, and conservation efforts.
Although each collection has not grown consistently over the Academy's existence, the collections contain valuable pockets of information.
Today we are working to understand these time capsules and be more consistent with data collection.
There are still so many specimens and archival materials to be processed and made accessible for
continued education and research opportunities.
In addition to social media outreach, we are constantly adding information to our online database, Arctos,
for scientists, historians, artists, and environmentalists all around the world to use.
You may have seen our collections in exhibits and being used by staff around the Museum.
Entomology specimens are brought out at Bugapalooza and Flutter into Fall.
Herpetology specimens and their living relatives are at Saturday with the Snakes.
You can even see staff and volunteers add to the collection in Beecher Lab where small mammals and birds are made into study skins.
In some cases, a visit to the Academy's Nature Museum may be your only opportunity to interact with these species.
Some are great at camouflage, others live in different parts of the world, and some unfortunately are extinct.
This is why museum collections are so important.
They provide us with a record of the past that can be used to understand the present and the future of the natural world
through exhibitions, educational programs, conservation efforts, and scientific research.
And that's our show for today. Thank you for tuning in as we celebrate 165 years
of science education and nature.
If you have any questions about our history or our collections be sure to drop them in the comments below.
We'll be recording a frequently asked questions episode soon.
In the meantime, if you want to learn more about our collections, we've picked out these videos for you.
If you enjoyed today's video be sure to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
We'll see you next time on Curious By Nature.