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Article: Museum of Science and Industry
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
(MSI) occupies the structure built as the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; until 1920, the site in Jackson Park housed the Field Columbian Museum. Inspired by the hands-on displays at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, Julius Rosenwald, the chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company and a prolific philanthropist, donated several million dollars to found a similar industrial museum for Chicago. When MSI opened to the public on 1 July 1933, most of the building renovations were still incomplete, but a reconstructed southern Illinois coal mine was ready for visitors in the basement.
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