Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH; also known as the Field Museum) is a private–public natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, as well as its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections.

A private nonprofit institution, the museum operates in close partnership with the municipal government agency Chicago Park District, which owns the land and building. The museum is run by a private Board of Trustees and funded through a combination of ticket sales, memberships, donations, endowments, and grants, along with some public funding for specific programs or maintenance.

The permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, include fossils, current cultures from around the world, and interactive programming demonstrating today's urgent conservation needs. The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field, the department-store magnate. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.