Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum was incorporated in the State of Illinois on September 16, 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago with its purpose the "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of objects illustrating art, archaeology, science and history." In 1905, the Museum's name was changed to Field Museum of Natural History to honor the Museum's major benefactor, Marshall Field, and to better reflect its focus on the natural sciences. In 1921 the Museum moved from its original location in Jackson Park to its present site on Chicago Park District property near downtown where it is part of a lakefront Museum.  The Field family continues to be among the most generous donors to the museum.

Museum of Science & Industry

This magnificent structure was built by Marshall Field as the original Field Museum of Natural History.  Field built the architectural masterpiece as a gift to the city and as a centerpiece for Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 which attracted more than 26 million visitors from more than 40 countries to Chicago and helped establish the city's reputation as a world leader in architecture and commerce.

When the new Field Museum building opened downtown in 1921, the former building was left vacant.  In 1926 the building was selected as the site for a new science museum and was born again as the Museum and Science and Industry.

John G Shedd Aquarium

In the early 1920's, Marshall Field and Company President John G. Shedd made a $2 million gift to begin the process of design and finance later construction of what would become the world's greatest aquarium. He added another $1 million to make sure his aquarium would be just as grand as the two museums already in Grant Park: the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum.  

Shedd called for Chicago's other civic and business colleagues to rally behind him to form the Shedd Aquarium Society in 1924.

Inspired by Burnham’s famous charge, “make no little plans,” Shedd got down to business making plans for the world’s largest aquarium. From Naples to Berlin, San Francisco to Boston, a research team spent months examining the design and operation of leading aquariums across the globe. Only the best and most modern techniques would be incorporated into Chicago’s aquarium. Groundbreaking took place on November 2, 1927, and construction of the grand Beaux Arts building was completed in a remarkable two years.  

On December 19, 1929, Chicagoans had just dug out from a blizzard. They were still reeling from the stock market crash two months earlier. A sneak preview of the magnificent Shedd Aquarium provided a much-needed boost. Thousands lined up to see the stupendous building and the aquarium’s only display — a large freshwater pool featuring fishes, reptiles and amphibians.  

Over the next year, more than a million gallons of seawater were shipped by rail from Florida to fill new galleries. It was an unprecedented undertaking: Shedd would be the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection.

When the aquarium officially opened on May 30, 1930, it housed the greatest variety of sea life under one roof. Sadly, John G. Shedd only lived long enough to see the architect’s first drawings for his aquarium. It was his widow, Mary R. Shedd, who cut the ribbon at the official opening ceremony.  In 1938, Mary Shedd donated an additional $1.5 million to start an endowment fund for the aquarium.  In the years since, generations of the Shedd family and Marshall Field's have continued their generous leadership role in support of the aquarium. 

Art Institute of Chicago 

Marshall Field made the first of his major philanthropies when he was a charter member of the corporation formed in 1878 to found the institution which became the Art Institute of Chicago. Field's generosity financed the purchase of the museum's original collections and the Field family continues this leadership role among the most generous donors to the museum.  In 1877, following a fire that destroyed Field's store on State Street,  the current site of the Art Institute was a temporary location for one of Field's early stores.  

University of Chicago 

The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller.  The land for the new university was donated by Marshall Field, who would become one of the University's most generous donors. 

Merchandise Mart

The Merchandise Mart opened on Monday, May 5, 1930, six months into the Depression and was built to house Marshall Field's wholesale activities.  In 1931, Marshall Field and Company's losses amounted to five million dollars; the figure rose to eight million in 1932, but Field's continued operations to preserve jobs and to show faith in Chicago.

In 1935, still believing that they could save Field's wholesale division, efficiency experts were called in and dealt the final blow: Field's jobbing division, the heart and soul of wholesale trade, would have to be eliminated. Within six months, Field's wholesale division was virtually liquidated.

Field's reduced its space in The Merchandise Mart from four floors to one and half, however the Mart continued to introduce current and avant-garde trends in home furnishings in its showrooms and trade shows.

Events in the late 1930s spurred economic recovery, Marshall Field and Company once again began to record profits. Later, during the years of W.W.II, The Merchandise Mart experienced the dreary presence of hundreds of government offices. Ironically, this was the time when the completion of the Pentagon in 1943, at 6.2 million square feet, caused a change in The Mart's title from "the largest building in the world" to "the largest commercial building in the world."

In 1945, ownership of The Mart passed from Marshall Field and Company to Joseph P. Kennedy, former ambassador to Great Britain and father of the 35th president.