Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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a vast depository of published resources for those who ar e seriously delving into Ameri-
can and European history and literature, as well as other aspects of the humanities fr om
the late Middle Ages onward. The library is also a major destination for genealogists dig-
ging at their roots, and its holdings are now open for the use of the public for fr ee (over
the age of 16 with a photo ID). The collections, many items of which are displayed dur-
ing an ongoing series of public exhibitions, include mor e than 1.5 million v olumes and
75,000 maps, housed in a comely fiv e-story granite building, designed in the S panish-
Romanesque style b y Henry Ives Cobb and built in 1893. F or an o verview, take a fr ee
1-hour tour Thursday at 3pm or S aturday at 10:30am. The library also operates a fine
bookstore and sponsors a series of concer ts (including those b y its r esident early-music
ensemble, the N ewberry Consor t), lectures, and childr en's stor y hours thr oughout the
year. One popular annual ev ent that older kids might enjo y is the “B ughouse Square”
debates. Held across the street in Washington Square Park, the debates re-create the fiery
soapbox orations of the left-wing agitators in the 1930s and 1940s. Allo w a half-hour.
60 W. Walton St. (at Dearborn Pkwy.).
&
312/943-9090
or 312/255-3700 for programs. www.newberry.
org. Reading room Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm; Fri-Sat 9am-5pm. Exhibit galler y Mon and Fri-Sat 8:15am-
5:30pm; Tues-Thurs 8:15am-7:30pm. Sub way/El: Red Line t o Chicago/State. Bus: 22, 36, 125, 145, 146,
147, or 151.
Oriental Institute Museum
Finds
Ages 10 & up.
D on't skip this museum
because of its intimidating name. Kids love the Egyptian artifacts here (including mummies
and toys and clothes fr om ancient E gyptian children). Located near the midpoint of the
University of Chicago campus, just nor th of the M emorial Chapel, the O riental Institute
houses one of the world's major collections of Near Eastern art. Although most of the gal-
leries have been renovated within the past few years, this is still a very traditional museum:
lots of glass cases, v ery few interactive exhibits (that 's why I r ecommend it only for older
kids—young childr en won't be inter ested). I t won't take y ou long to see the highlights
here—and a few impressive pieces make it worth a stop for histor y and art buffs.
Your first stop should be the
Egyptian G allery
, which sho wcases the finest
objects among the 35,000 ar tifacts from the N ile Valley held b y the museum. A t the
center of the galler y stands a monumental 17-foot solid-quar tzite
statue of K ing Tut-
ankhamen,
the bo y king who r uled Egypt from about 1335 to 1324 b .c. The largest
Egyptian sculpture in the Western Hemisphere (tipping the scales at 6 tons), the O rien-
tal Institute excavated it in 1930. The surrounding exhibits, which document the life and
beliefs of Egyptians from 5000 b.c. to the 8th century a.d., have a wonderfully accessible
approach that emphasizes themes, not chronology. Among them are mummification (14
mummies ar e on display—fiv e people and nine animals), kingship , society , writing
(including a deed for the sale of a house, a copy of the
Book of the Dead,
and a schoolboy's
homework), family, art, tools and technology , occupations, popular r eligion, medicine,
the gods, food, games, clothing, and je welry. Kids will be especially inter ested in two
fragile objects used b y Egyptian children: papyrus documents and a child 's linen tunic
from 1550 b.c.
The institute also houses impor tant collections of ar tifacts from civilizations that once
flourished in what are now Iran and Iraq. The highlight of the
Mesopotamian Gallery
is a massive, 16-foot-tall sculpture of a winged bull with a human head, which once stood
in the palace of Assyrian King S argon II. The gallery also contains some of the earliest
man-made tools ever excavated, along with many other pieces that hav e become one-of-
a-kind since the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad in 2003. Other galleries are
filled with artifacts from Sumer, ancient Palestine, Israel, Anatolia, and Nubia.
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