Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Academy of Sciences has been led by natural history lovers, beginning with founder Robert Kennicott, and Museum professionals from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. During the early years, Kennicott and public citizens assembled collections and welcomed the public to view the natural history artifacts. However, after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the total collection and library were destroyed.

In 1894, the collections were rebuilt and the Academy was moved to the Laflin Building in Lincoln Park. It was here natural history was brought to life through innovative dioramas filled with local fauna and flora. Research took flight and flourished, next to wildlife photography and films. By the end of the century, the Academy was considered to be the leading provider of scientific enrichment in the city.

Opened in 1999, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is a 6.35-acre facility located on Cannon Drive. Today, the museum has an incomparable collection of more than 250,000 specimens, including animals, plants, minerals and fossils.

Items in the Museum's collection are incorporated into educational exhibits and programming. The exhibits showcase baseline data for studies of the environment and document how human beings have changed the ecosystem over time. The collections provide visitors with a window into the past and help foster a better understanding of things seen today and aids in future planning.

The Peggy Notebaert Museum collections contain many thousands of specimens displayed in an interesting and unique way. The collections include more than 20,000 reptiles and amphibians, 50,000 insects, 30,000 fossils, 12,000 birds, 2,400 eggs and nests, 20,000 rocks and minerals and 200 spiders. Also included are thousands of field notes, papers, photographs and letters on display throughout the facility.

The Arachnology Collection contains more than 200 specimens collected by Donald Lowrie during the 1940's, from Illinois and Arizona. The Academy contains more than 30,000 herbarium specimens collected through the early part of the 19th century. Other collections include plants from Cuba and Europe, donated to the Museum in 1873, by John Wolfe on a U.S. Army expedition.

The Entomology Collection features butterflies and beetles collected by Berthold Neubarth, Leslie Banks and Harry Sicher. The Herpetology Collection includes a majority of specimens collected by Robert Kennicott during the 1850's. The Mammalogy Collection contains 4,500 specimens and featured are mammals from the Smokey Mountains and Arizona. The Mineralogy Collection includes more than 20,000 specimens collected before 1900, and a small piece of the Canyon Diablo, Arizona meteorite.

The Oology Collection is one of the most important at the Museum and features more than 2,400 different eggs and nests from North American birds. Of particular interest in the collection are an extinct Passenger Pigeon egg and the first documented egg of a Kittlitz Murrelet, which is rarely found in Illinois.

The Ornithology Collection is one of the best known of the Academy and consists of 12,000 skins and 1,000 mounted species of birds. The collection contains 538 bird species found throughout North America, with 30% of the specimens being collected before 1900.

The Paleontology Collection features a fossil collection with more than 10,000 specimens, and has recently been identified and reorganized. Several hundred of the fossils were collected prior to 1900, and the museum has more than 20 plaster casts of vertebrate fossils purchased from Ward's Scientific in 1896.

The museum is considered a "green'' facility and has more than 17,000 square feet of rooftop gardens, an extensive water conservation system and solar roof top panels. Exhibits and amenities of the facility are constructed using recycled fibers and renewable materials.

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is opened daily, Monday through Friday from 9 am until 4:30 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am until 5 pm. Guests can enjoy a gift shop, cafy and the Green City Market, which is opened seasonally.