Museum of Science and Industry

Museums, Est. 1933

In 1933, the Museum of Science and Industry opened to the public in Chicago. The idea was inspired by businessman Julius Rosenwald, the chairman of Sears Robuck and Company. It was inspired by 1911 visit with his son to the Deutches Museum in Munich, Germany.

With the help of a few other Midwest business leaders, Rosenwald restored and converted the Palace of Fine Arts, the last remaining major structure from the 1893 World's Fair, into a new type of American museum. Visitors could interact with the exhibits, not just view displays of artifacts.

The Museum of Science and Industry holds the distinction of being the largest science museum in a single building in the Western Hemisphere. It displays more than 800 exhibits and 2,000 interactive units in the 350,000 square feet of exhibit space. Some of the exhibits include a World War II captured German submarine, which is on the National Register of Historic Places; a working coal-mine shaft elevator from 1933, a cantilevered Boeing 727 that visitors can walk through, and a 3,500-square-foot model railroad, one of the largest in the world. The museum also houses an Omnimax theater.