Frederic Ward Putnam, Chicago's Cultural Philanthropists, and the Founding of the Field Museum

Abstract

In the waning days of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, a group of wealthy Chicago philanthropists and other interested parties established the Field Museum. Local founders intended the museum to be a memorial of the exposition. Their idea was to create an institution of almost limitless scope and of a size sufficient to accommodate the broad range of exhibits acquired from the fair. Harvard ethnologist Frederic Ward Putnam has enjoyed much of the credit for establishing the Field Museum. However, Putnam's plan for a museum limited to anthropology and the natural sciences was inconsistent with the broad scope adopted by the museum in its first decade of existence. In time, the museum developed a natural history format strikingly similar to Putnam's ideal. Nevertheless, Chicago's cultural philanthropists played a vital role in shaping the initial scope and philosophy of the Field Museum.