The Field Museum

A huge collection of just about everything

Noteworthy for: At the Field’s DNA Discovery Center, visitors can watch scientists extracting DNA from fossils, see animal and plant remains, and ask questions about their work.
A 40-foot-high Tyrannosaurus named Sue is the star exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum, which contains one of the world's best collections of dinosaur skeletons. These prehistoric terrors form just one part of large, eclectic collection that covers both natural history and human prehistory.

This wide remit gives the Field Museum a slightly odd but highly satisfying mix of display items, taking in stuffed animals, fossils, pre-Columbian artifacts, ancient Egyptian mummies and Chinese Jade. Perhaps the most satisfying part of the collection (after the dinosaurs) is the excellent variety of exhibits on Native American cultures from the Arctic down to Peru's Incas. The collection as a whole is given an added sense of dignity and momentousness by the museum's grandly proportioned 1920s classical revival building.